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The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein
Finalist, 2008 Pulitzer Prize
Lincoln Kirstein was a tireless champion of the arts in America. Working behind the scenes to provide artists with money, space, audiences, and, at times, emotional support, he helped found such landmark cultural institutions as the New York City Ballet, the School of American Ballet, New York’s Lincoln Center and Stratford's American Shakespeare Festival.
Duberman's biography sheds light on this lamentably neglected cultural figure. Though best known as a benefactor of the arts, Kirstein was also an adept critic, poet and novelist who published some fifteen books in his lifetime. From his undergraduate years at Harvard, where he established the influential literary magazine Hound and Horn , as well as the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art (precursor to the Modern Museum of Art), to his complex and historically significant relationship with George Balanchine, Kirstein's contributions were indespensible to the development of the arts in America.
Authoritative and elegant, Duberman's biography utilizes previously unavailable documents, including Kirstein's diaries, to reveal the keen eye, incessant self-doubt, and enormous ambition that drove Kirstein's relentless advocacy. The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein brings attention to an important, but until-now unappreciated figure whose individual contribution to the arts was one of the greatest of the twentieth century.
Lincoln Kirstein was a tireless champion of the arts in America. Working behind the scenes to provide artists with money, space, audiences, and, at times, emotional support, he helped found such landmark cultural institutions as the New York City Ballet, the School of American Ballet, New York’s Lincoln Center and Stratford's American Shakespeare Festival.
Duberman's biography sheds light on this lamentably neglected cultural figure. Though best known as a benefactor of the arts, Kirstein was also an adept critic, poet and novelist who published some fifteen books in his lifetime. From his undergraduate years at Harvard, where he established the influential literary magazine Hound and Horn , as well as the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art (precursor to the Modern Museum of Art), to his complex and historically significant relationship with George Balanchine, Kirstein's contributions were indespensible to the development of the arts in America.
Authoritative and elegant, Duberman's biography utilizes previously unavailable documents, including Kirstein's diaries, to reveal the keen eye, incessant self-doubt, and enormous ambition that drove Kirstein's relentless advocacy. The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein brings attention to an important, but until-now unappreciated figure whose individual contribution to the arts was one of the greatest of the twentieth century.
- GenresBiography
723 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 2007
About the author
Martin Duberman
66 books88 followersMartin Bauml Duberman is a scholar and playwright. He graduated from Yale in 1952 and earned a Ph.D. in American history from Harvard in 1957. Duberman left his tenured position at Princeton University in 1971 to become Distinguished Professor of History at Lehman College in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 2, 2024
On page 512, at about the height of my frustration with this book, Duberman quotes Osbert Sitwell's description of Lincoln Kirstein as "both a born impresario and a born writer" - a neat and persuasive statement of Kirstein's agon. Duberman's book is a biography of Kirstein the Impresario. It does not explore his intellectual development, or his writing life. The reader gets testy memos, budgets in many drafts, prospectuses aplenty - a nice view of arts administration and philanthropic politicking in Midcentury Manhattan - but no meaningful account of Kirstein's mind and style. A shame, because Kirstein's best prose is a marvel - angular, oblique, fiercely compressed; a model of "richness on a severe structure" - to use a phrase of Kirstein's own - of "astringent lyricism," to use a phrase of James McCourt's. If you like Beckett or Yourcenar, you'll like Kirstein. Duberman's book seems half-done. The curious should check out By With To & From: A Lincoln Kirstein Reader.
August 15, 2016
It took me some time to plow through this very dense book, but it was worth it. It is packed with a lot of wonderful information not only about Lincoln Kirstein, but many of the movers and shakers of the 20th-century.
August 31, 2023
Academic and a bit remote for general readership, but a fine history and interesting stories
At the September 2009 of the NYC LGBT Center book discussion group, we had a small but very smart and vocal group that read the "The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein" by Martin Duberman.
I think that we all wanted to learn more about Lincoln Kirstein and wanted to like this book, but almost everyone agreed that something "didn't click" in this epic biography. While there were lots of amazing events and interesting stories and huge personalities, there was not an overarching view of Kirstein's life or accomplishments. The organization seemed a bit muddled. Sometimes there was was just too much damn detail. Lots of valuable information was buried in the text. There was no attempt to dramatize events or make the point of some of the incidents clear. There was a lot of sex (which was good) but it was unclear why some of the stories were in the book.
One reader pointed out that Duberman was not invited to any of the Lincoln Center activities celebrating ABT and Lincoln Kirstein's anniversary after the biography came out, so he ruffled feathers with this definitive biography including the stories of Kirstein's bouts of manic depression and later mental illness.
But for this general interest reading group (even if we are all smart queers in NYC), it all seemed a bit remote and academic for such a major figure in NYC and the American arts
At the September 2009 of the NYC LGBT Center book discussion group, we had a small but very smart and vocal group that read the "The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein" by Martin Duberman.
I think that we all wanted to learn more about Lincoln Kirstein and wanted to like this book, but almost everyone agreed that something "didn't click" in this epic biography. While there were lots of amazing events and interesting stories and huge personalities, there was not an overarching view of Kirstein's life or accomplishments. The organization seemed a bit muddled. Sometimes there was was just too much damn detail. Lots of valuable information was buried in the text. There was no attempt to dramatize events or make the point of some of the incidents clear. There was a lot of sex (which was good) but it was unclear why some of the stories were in the book.
One reader pointed out that Duberman was not invited to any of the Lincoln Center activities celebrating ABT and Lincoln Kirstein's anniversary after the biography came out, so he ruffled feathers with this definitive biography including the stories of Kirstein's bouts of manic depression and later mental illness.
But for this general interest reading group (even if we are all smart queers in NYC), it all seemed a bit remote and academic for such a major figure in NYC and the American arts
August 2, 2019
Could have used a severe editor to weed out 200 pages.
Lincoln Kirstein certainly merits a biography, just not one of 600+ pages. There's just too much intricate detail about the obscure politics of art administration organizations
Lincoln Kirstein certainly merits a biography, just not one of 600+ pages. There's just too much intricate detail about the obscure politics of art administration organizations
August 12, 2023
A complicated man who was pivotal in the development of the arts, ballet in NYC and therefore America and Balanchine. Very well researched biography.
July 18, 2012
The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein is an aptly named biography for an influential figure in modernist literature, art, and dance that also led a complex life as both a married man and a homosexual engaged in a number of affairs throughout his life. Martin Duberman, winner of the Bancroft Prize for his biography of Frances Charles Adams, author of a groundbreaking and innovative history of Black Mountain College, the acclaimed biographer of Paul Robeson, and one of the founders of Gay and Lesbian studies, is the perfect guide to Kirstein's cultural and personal worlds. Kirstein helped to create Lincoln Center in New York City as well as the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut but also earned praise as a critic of art, photography, and dance. In the midst of his impressive achievements Kirstein suffered from a bipolar disorder that strained many of his relationships with family, friends, and lovers. Duberman provides a candid narrative of this energetic, accomplished, if troubled man, relying on complete access to Kirstein's papers and on extensive interviews with his friends-all meticulously documented in the detailed notes section of this comprehensive yet incisive biography.
October 4, 2014
Not just a history of a creative spirit but a fascinating look into who and what shaped the 20th century New York City arts landscape (OK, I admit I breezed over some of the fine details about who was dancing what early Balanchine choreography). Not only do you get the early formation of the New York City Ballet, but also MoMA (plenty of Phillip Johnson gossip) and artists such as Paul Cadmus (and who was sleeping with whom).
never-finished
June 19, 2008Still reading...
It certainly is a very large book.
However, I stalled somewhere around the chapter where he has sex with his brother...
It certainly is a very large book.
However, I stalled somewhere around the chapter where he has sex with his brother...
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December 31, 2009This biography was a finalist for the 2008 Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction, presented by the Publishing Triangle.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews