Gershwin georges

2007 · 23646 — New York City NY: Random House 2007. First Edition. First Printing. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket. New York City NY: Random House 2007. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 340 pages. Book-length account on subject. One of the most valuable books on American music and culture ever written in our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run by Random House as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Wilfrid Sheed's "The House That George Built: With A Little Help From Irving Cole And A Crew of About Fifty". The Golden Age of American music not just American Song. Preceded only by Irving Berlin George more or less created and solidified the House along with an astonishing gathering of musical genuises a "high-point" feat never to be repeated in American history. Which "embodied all that was cool sexy and sophisticated in popular culture. For four glittering decades geniuses like Jerome Kern George Gershwin Cole Porter and Harold Arlen ran their fingers over piano keys enticing unforgettable melodies out of thin air. A dazzling authoritative history of the era that tripled the world's total supply of singable tunes. It all began when immigrants in New York's Lower East Side heard Black jazz and blues and it surged into an artistic torrent nothing short of miraculous. George Gershwin in his brief but incandescent career straddled Tin Pan Alley and Carnegie Hall charming everyone in his orbit. Half a century later Gershwin love songs like 'Someone To Watch Over Me' 'The Man I Love' and 'Our Love Is Here To Stay' are as tender and moving as ever. Sheed also illuminates the unique gifts of the great jazz songsters Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington conjuring up the circumstances of their creativity and bringing back the thrill of what it was like to hear 'Georgia On My Mind or 'Mood Indigo' for the first time" Publisher's blurb. "Far and away our greatest contribution to the world's art supply during the so-called American Century" Wilfrid Sheed. An absolute "must-have" title for Wilfrid Sheed and George Gershwin collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed and inscribed in red ink-pen on the front free endpaper by the author: "For Gale - Cheers Wilfrid Sheed". It is signed directly on the page itself not on a tipped-in page. Wilfrid Sheed's shaky-looking handwriting has always been like that idiosyncratic in its own way and NOT a sign of old age or arthritis. The recipient who is named was personally known to the British-born American immigrant-author. This title is a contemporary classic. As far as we know this is the only such signed and inscribed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and despite its imperfection slight crimping on the bottom hard board corner but it's there is still in especially fine condition: Every single internal page is clean crisp and bright. Please note: Copies available online have very serious flaws or are in subsequent printings. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. One of the most brilliant critics of the 20th century and our time. A fine copy. SEE ALSO MICHAEL FEINSTEIN "THE GERSHWINS AND ME" TITLE IN OUR CATALOG. ISBN 1400061059. Random House hardcover