Jerome Kern: His Life and Music

The author is a distinguished historian of American musicals. In this volume we learn not only about Jerome Kern but about the theater and music industry from the early and mid-twentieth century. Bordman has a full command of the primary and secondary sources, and it's doubtful that any other historian will attempt a more exhaustive Kern biogaphy. But there's the fault: the story is overwhelmed by details. It takes a dedicated reader to wade through the barrage of facts about Kern and the theater. I made it, but many others, I'm afraid, won't. The word "definitive," controversial as it is, may surely be used in this case. Bordman is a fine writer as well as researcher, and this helps enormously.