Geniuses, Goddesses and People

by Winthrop Sargeant

(From the Foreword): "The first part of this book is an attempt to describe an odd and important region of the art world which I myself inhabited prior to my life as a magazine writer, and in which I formed my first impressions of the gifts and foibles of genius. [In particular, he provides a subjective history of the New York Symphony under Walter Damrosch, and the New York Philharmonic under Willem Mengelberg and Arturo Toscanini.] The reader who seeks a definitive treatise on the nature of the artistic temperament will not find it here. My impressions and comments are intended to entertain rather than to settle any deep questions of psychology or aesthetics. The latter part of this book consists of a series of profiles [Toscanini, Joe Gatto, Rita Hayworth, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ezio Pinza, Sir Thomas Beecham, Bernard Maybeck, Artur Rubinstein, Robert Kiesow] most of which have appeared in 'Life' magazine where, for several years, it has been my job to write about the habits and doings of more or less celebrated people."

317 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1949