• The author is the first person outside the family to have access to Hart’s diary • Dozens of never-before-published photos—many from his family • Written with the consent and cooperation of Hart’s widow, Kitty Carlisle Hart, and his children • Frank, thoroughly researched, insightful look at the Golden Age of Broadway • Features interviews with dozens of Hart’s colleagues, including Gregory Peck, Julie Andrews, Robert Goulet, and many more He’s a legend of The Great White Way whose very name is synonymous with the Golden Age of Broadway Moss Hart . In Moss Hart: A Prince of the Theater , acclaimed biographer Jared Brown examines this Pulitzer Prize–winning legend with a meticulously researched, sensitive look at the life and work of a major American artist. Brown examines Hart’s early days writing with George S. Kaufman, his collaborations with Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, and Ira Gershwin, his career as a movie director, and his final act as director of the stage smashes My Fair Lady and Camelot . More than just an assessment of Hart’s career, this is a personal portrait as well, with frank discussions of Hart’s rumored bisexuality, his battles with anxiety and depression, and his marriage. This long-awaited biography, written with the full cooperation of Hart’s family and friends, is truly the definitive picture of a theatrical giant. Brown reveals nothing particularly shocking in his new biography of playwright and director Hart. Others before have dealt, however gingerly, with Hart's possible bisexuality and the constant confusion over whether he was Jewish. (He was.) Instead, Brown offers a thick, well-researched, no-nonsense traditional biography that examines its subject's life in great detail without getting lost in a forest of facts. Brown, for example, analyzes Hart's autobiography, Act One (1959), revealing that Hart wasn't immune to the temptation to rewrite his life to make a better story, or to protect close family members. Brown makes a convincing case that the person who wrote Hart threatening letters and set mysterious backstage fires early in Hart's career may have been his mentally unstable mother, not the equally unstable, theater-loving aunt Act One fingers. Not that Brown's book is packed with gossip. It is much more devoted to charting Hart's artistic development and professional accomplishments. Hart fans, in particular, will appreciate the wealth of new information about this theatrical giant that Brown has unearthed. Jack Helbig Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Jared Brown , the author of Alan J. Pakula: His Films and His Life, Zero Mostel , and The Fabulous Lunts , has directed more than seventy productions. The former chair of Illinois Wesleyan’s School of Theatre Arts, he received the DuPont Award for Teaching Excellence in 1997. He lives in Bloomington, Illinois. Used Book in Good Condition