Dance, Literature, Art & Theater

Memoirs by Truman Capote, Norman Podhoretz, Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Laurents, William Styron, John Updike, Alice Walker among others, and several by people who knew some of these authors. Sounds like lots of hours of intriguing reading!

(There's an overlap between this page and the celebrities page. Some of the titles in the one could have gone into the other. See me at the end of the show and I'll give you a refund.)

 

To read reviews about a book or order it, click on its title. To quickly reach one of the subtopics immediately below, click on it.

| Art | Dance | Literature |  Theater |

Art

Balthus. Vanished Splendors: A Memoir.  Ecco Publishers.  2002. On the life of the painter.

Moore, Honor. The White Blackbird: A Life of the Painter Margarett Sargent by Her Granddaughter. W.W. Norton and Company. 2009.

Dance

Ashley, Merrill. Dancing for Balanchine . Dutton. 1984.  By a former dancer for the famed choreographer.

Miller, Barbara Milberg. In Balanchine's Company: A Dancer's Memoir. Wesleyan. 2006.  Chronology of the 1957 Balanchine-Stravinsky collaboration.

Literature

Atkinson, J. Paradise Road: Jack Kerouac’s Lost Highway and My Search for America.  Wiley, 2010. Author retraces Kerouac's legendary journey.

Barth, John. Once Upon A Time: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel. Little Brown and Company.  1994.

Cantwell, Mary.  Manhattan Memoir:  American Girl; Manhattan, When I was Young; Speaking with Strangers.  Penguin, 2000.  Three memoirs by former magazine editor and member of NY Times editorial board.

Capote, Truman.  A House on the Heights. Little Bookroom. 2002.

Denham, Alice. Sleeping With Bad Boys: A 1956 Playboy Model's Escapades with James Dean, Hugh Hefner, Norman Mailer and the Famous Writers of the 1950's Beat Generation. Cardoza Publishers.  2006.

Doty, Mark. Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy. Beacon Press, 2002. A poet on the sources of creativity and of our humanness.

Dunphy, Jack.  Dear Genius:  A Memoir of My Life with Truman Capote. McGraw-Hill Publishers. 1987.

Gellhorn, Martha. Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir. 2001. Tarcher Publishers.  2001.

Hemingway, Gregory.  Papa:  A Personal Memoir.  Paragon House. 1988.

Hotchner, A. E.  Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir. Da Capo Press, 2005.

Jovanovich, William.  The Temper of the West:  A Memoir.   University of South Carolina Press, 2003.  President of Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich.

Jolas, Maria and Caws, Mary Ann. Maria Jolas: Woman of Action: A Memoir and Other Writings. University of South Carolina Press, 2004.  By the woman who discovered and introduced Gertrude Stein and Hemingway.

Klaus, Carl H. Taking Retirement: A Beginner's Diary. Beacon Press, 2000. By the founder of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program.

Mailer, Norris Church. A Ticket to the Circus.2010. By Norman Mailer's widow.

Moates, Marianne. Truman Capote’s Southern Years:  Stories from a Monroeville Cousin. University Alabama Press.  2008.

Podhoretz, Norman. Ex-Friends: Falling Out with Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer. The Eastern Press.  1999.

Page, P. K.  Hand Luggage: A Memoir in Verse.  Porcupine's Quill.  2006.

Settle, Mary Lee and Freeman, Anne. Learning to Fly: A Writer's Memoir. Norton,  2007.

Styron, William.  Darkness Visible:  A Memoir of Madness.  Modern Library, 2007. The late author of Sophie's Choice on his struggle with depression.

Updike, John.   Self-Consciousness: Memoirs.  Alfred A. Knopf  Publishers.  1989.

Walker, Alice.  The Same River Twice:  A Memoir.  Scribnor Publishers. 1996.

Theater

Dern, Bruce. Things I’ve Said, But Probably Shouldn’t Have: An Unrepentant Memoir.  Wiley, 2007. Actor’s reminiscences about his long run on stage and screen.

Laurents, Arthur. Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood. Applause Books.  2001.

| Art | Dance | Literature |  Theater |