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Noel Coward: A Biography
by
Philip Hoare
To several generations, actor, playwright, songwriter, and filmmaker, Noël Coward (1899-1973) was the very personification of wit, glamour, and elegance. His biographer, Philip Hoare, given unprecedented access to the private papers and correspondence of Coward family members, compatriots, and numerous lovers, has produced the definitive biography of one of the twentieth c...more
Paperback, 622 pages
Published
May 22nd 1998
by University of Chicago Press
(first published 1995)
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Written at a rather breathless pace, and somehow I never got a palpable feeling of what Coward was like--there were so many excellent external details, but the man himself eluded me. . .interesting because in Maria Riva's bio of her mother, she includes a letter from Coward to Dietrich. And in this one page, the whole man springs to life: Sad, independent, wise, wary, and deeply mistrustful of love.
Too bad this book couldn't provide an image of similar complexity.
Too bad this book couldn't provide an image of similar complexity.
Hoare wrote a wonderful biogpraphy on one of the most underrated talents of the 20th Century. I don't always see eye-to-eye with Coward, but I find him fascinating. I am a fan of his plays and songs. His fiction I think is kind of weak, but he's so important aesthetically with respect to the U.K. arts.
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