George Gershwin: A New Biography

Do we need another new biography of Gershwin? The author makes no strong claims to having written an important book. His introduction is so modest that you get the impression writing this book is a way to fill up the empty hours of his retirement. (He is 75, so no spring chicken.) That said, GEORGE GERSHWIN is scrupulously researched and makes claims for Gershwin's continuing stature within the field of music that pique the interest. Hyland's style isn't really a style per se, but it's serviceable and only gets in the way of his meaning occasionally. I found Hyland's animus against the film star Paulette Goddard a bit puzzling. Is it because she was married (to Charlie Chaplin) when she conducted her affair with Gershwin? Hyland says that she is "not a reliable witness" as though this were a damning thing to say about someone's character (perhaps for a biographer it is, but for the general public? I don't know). She seems to have brought Gershwin some sexual pleasure and distraction from the illness that eventually killed him, but to hear Hyland tell it, it's almost as though her lying about dates done him in. Give a girl a break, William Hyland! Other than this lack of gallantry I enjoyed the book from beginning to end.

I almost didn't finish this biography. The earliest part of the book, given over to a recounting of Gershwin's background and youth, is so stilted and so badly edited that I almost threw it against the wall. There are numerous misprints or typos. For example, lyricist Irving Caesar's last name is spelled three different ways on ONE page, and then the same three different ways again a few pages later. Didn't anyone proofread the book? In the book's second sentence we read that in 1898, the year of Gershwin's birth, the newly consolidated five boroughs of New York City 'encompassed over three hundred acres.' I don't think so; that's less than one square mile! But I persisted, and it got better. I noticed, also, that when the author, a former aspiring jazz trumpeter and then long-time editor of 'Foreign Affairs Quarterly,' was writing about the music itself his style became more graceful and his unbounded love for the subject was obvious. Indeed, his style is down-right perky when he's talking about something he's really interested in. Still, there is a good deal of 'and then he wrote' and extraneous material in the organization of the book.I am certainly not a Gershwin scholar, but I have read several of biographies and lots of liner notes over the years. Edward Jablonski's Gershwin books remain the best I've seen. Still, I learned some new things in Hyland's book. For instance, I don't recall hearing or reading that Gershwin intended to write a total of 24 piano préludes (presumably like Chopin's Op. 28); he did finish three and apparently had begun a fourth. I read that and started wishing he'd kept at it--the three he published were party pieces of mine in my piano-playing days--but of course his was such a frenetic and tragically short life it's no surprise that he didn't manage it. Quite the most appealing chapter for me is the one about 'Porgy and Bess.' It is chock-full of fascinating anecdotes as well as some serious analysis of the work itself. It is, after all, the greatest American opera. Hyland's enthusiasm for the subject and detailed knowledge of it makes this by far the most interesting chapter of all. For that I give him all credit.This is not a book for the casual buyer but is necessary for anyone who wants to read more than the usual biographies. I will say this: Hyland seems to have read just about everything ever written about Gershwin and there is an extensive and helpful bibliography. For that alone, for some readers, it might be worth the purchase price.Scott Morrison