This is an auction for LEONARD BERNSTEIN: A LIFE, by Meryle Secrest.

"Because this study is the second major one of Bernstein this year, comparisons with the first, by British TV producer Humphrey Burton, are inevitable. Both biographies are valuable. Burton enjoyed official access to family and papers and Secrest did not, with the perhaps natural consequence that Burton presents Bernstein in a more kindly light. On the other hand, Secrest can approach the maestro with a better sense, as an American, of his cultural context. Secrest is definitively superior on young Lenny's relations with his family; she also offers a more vivid, unvarnished picture of his final unhappy decade, during which he seemed determined, by his outre behaviour, to drive away even those who loved and admired him. On the early successes and the golden years from the mid-1940s to the mid-'70s, both books offer a sense of the headlong excitement of Bernstein's prodigious flowering. On basics, these two solid, highly readable books agree: the maestro had a vast talent, particularly as a conductor, that even his regrettable later personal excesses could not diminish."

• Publishers Weekly (US)

Amazon.com reviews:

"FIVE STARS!!! A perfect biography. Most people don't know what a really wonderful musician/composer/conductor he was."

"FIVE STARS! Best biography that really helps you understand this complex, often troubled personality. Very moving story and the last couple of chapters - dealing with his downward spiral at the end - are most depressing. But he managed to accomplish so much despite all the demons."

Hardback 1995.

470 pages.

Photographs throughout.

Very good condition.

The cost of shipping is $4.95, or $6.95 by tracked mail. If you are on rural delivery and want tracked mail, the shipping cost will be $9.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.