Virgil Thomson - Anthony Tommasini

Written with exclusive full access to Virgil Thomson's papers, here is the first full-scale account of Thomson's experiences as a composer, influential critic, and gay man. This biography shows how Thomson grew up in turn-of-the-century Kansas City, and recounts how an eccentric, but even then oddly self-confident boy took his first steps in the arts, guided by a troubled older man who was a closeted homosexual. It chronicles Thomson's long struggle to accept his sexuality "I didn't want to be queer"as he searched for a place in the wider world in army service in World War I, at Harvard, and in 1920s Paris, where he finally came to terms with himself as both a gay man and a composer. In Paris, Thomson's musical ambitions crystallized, as he studied with Nadia Boulanger and embarked on a collaboration with Gertrude Stein that would produce the pioneering opera Four Saints in Three Acts. From that point on, Thomson was a figure to reckon with in American music. This biography vividly portrays his often rivalrous relationships with fellow composers such as Aaron Copland, his penchant for settling scores as chief music critic on the New York Herald Tribune, his lasting impact on younger composers such as Leonard Bernstein and Ned Rorem, and, through it all, an unending struggle to write, and gain a hearing for his music. The result of this involving narrative is a classic American biography of a classic American character.