Fred Astaire

Joseph Epstein, Mark Crispin Miller

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Paperback

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English

Yale University Press
06 October 2009

Contemporary dance; Musicals; Biography; Biography: arts & entertainment

Series: Icons of America

A portrait of America’s most graceful and elegant male dancer and how he came to represent the essence of style, suavity, and charm

Joseph Epstein’s Fred Astaire investigates the great dancer’s magical talent, taking up the story of his life, his personality, his work habits, his modest pretensions, and above all his accomplishments. Written with the wit and grace the subject deserves, Fred Astaire provides a remarkable portrait of this extraordinary artist and how he came to embody for Americans a fantasy of easy elegance and, paradoxically, of democratic aristocracy.

Tracing Astaire’s life from his birth in Omaha to his death in his late eighties in Hollywood, the book discusses his early days with his talented and outspoken sister Adele, his gifts as a singer (Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern all delighted in composing for Astaire), and his many movie dance partners, among them Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell, and Betty Hutton. A key chapter of the book is devoted to Astaire’s somewhat unwilling partnership with Ginger Rogers, the woman with whom he danced most dazzlingly. What emerges from these pages is a fascinating view of an American era, seen through the accomplishments of Fred Astaire, an unassuming but uncompromising performer who transformed entertainment into art and gave America a new yet enduring standard for style.

By: Joseph Epstein
Series edited by: Mark Crispin Miller
Imprint: Yale University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 2mm
Weight: 204g
ISBN: 9780300158441
ISBN 10: 0300158440
Series: Icons of America
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 06 October 2009
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Joseph Epstein is the author of, among other books, Snobbery, Friendship and Fabulous Small Jews. He has been editor of American Scholar and has written for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Commentary, Town and Country, and other magazines.

Reviews for Fred Astaire

[Epstein] defines his subject with remarkable eloquence and precision. . . . The author becomes the Astaire of biography. As his book indicates, there can be no higher praise. -- Stefan Kanfer City Journal (10/31/2008)