The Brecht Memoir

by Eric Bentley, Martin Esslin (Foreword)

Book by Bentley, Eric

121 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 1991

About the author

Eric Russell Bentley was a British-born American theater critic, playwright, singer, editor, and translator whose work shaped twentieth-century theatrical discourse. Educated at University College, Oxford, and Yale University, where he earned his doctorate, he later taught at Black Mountain College and Columbia University and served as theatre critic for The New Republic. Known for his incisive and uncompromising criticism, he became one of the foremost English-language authorities on Bertolt Brecht, translating, editing, and performing Brecht’s work and recording landmark albums of Brecht songs. Bentley was also an accomplished playwright, with Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been, drawn from Un-American Activities Committee hearings, becoming his most produced play. He appeared for decades as a cabaret performer and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. An advocate for artistic and political freedom, he publicly opposed the Vietnam War and later spoke openly about his homosexuality and its influence on his work.

Reviews

[Karlo Mikhail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting tidbits on Brecht's life, friends, colleagues, writing habits, and idiosyncracies as a theatre director... by his foremost English translator. Some hilarious anecdotes. But generally dry and colored by Bentley's (often hilarious and absurd) anti-communist biases.