Stravinsky in pictures and documents

The portrait of the man and the musician that emerges from Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents is almost entirely new. This is all the more remarkable in that nearly seventy years of the composer's life were spent in the public eye. In spite of the publicity attendant on the birth of each new composition and on every podium appearance, Stravinsky managed to conceal what was most important to him in his private life, thoughts, and beliefs. Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents is the authoritative record of the composer's life, compiled by his second wife and by Robert Craft, his friend and associate of twenty-three years. Mme Vera Stravinsky selected the illustrations and the portions of the quoted excerpts concerned with the biography. Craft chose the other excerpts and wrote the connecting texts and commentaries.^ Through letters to and from Stravinsky--in all periods of his life--the book reveals the complexity, brilliance, and sharp edge of his mind, as well as the idiosyncrasies of his character. Like Stravinsky's life, the volume is divided into three sections: the Russian and Swiss years, the two decades in France between the World Wars, and the final thirty-two years in Ame