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9781101911396

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Fascinating. . . . Vibrant. . . . Essential. . . . A valuable contribution to theater history. The New York Times Kazan s unstoppable drive and restless energy . . . spring from almost every page of this meaty volume. . . . His complicated personality bristles forth, like a constant chorus of firecrackers. The New York Times Book Review Vivid, pungent and forceful, Elia Kazan s letters immerse us in the life of a working director. . . . An honest look at a complicated artist. The Washington Post The candid Kazan voice is at full throttle. . . There are blow-by-blow accounts of Kazan s creative path on most of his major film and stage projects. . . . No less fascinating are exchanges about some of his more instructive failures. The New York Review of Books The letters chart his tireless activity, his remarkable combination of combativeness and self-deprecation, charm and (where possible) loyalty . . .Above all we get a sense of the cost to himself and others of [his] extraordinary achievements . . . the struggles and the vision, sustained across decades, that brought them to fruition. London Telegraph Insightful, dynamic, and culturally important, Kazan . . . was that rarity an articulate first-class mind, engaged and in action. These 300 letters are a marvelous pool to illuminate Kazan s backstage processes, both personal and creative. Choice Engrossing . . . An impressive work of scholarship, this collection offers a sweeping look at sixty years of American popular culture and an intimate portrait of one complex man whirling at its center. Kirkus Reviews These vibrant, muscular, outspoken, take-no-prisoners letters tell you everything you will ever need to know about the theater, relationships between artists, Hollywood illusions, affairs of the heart, family. Kazan had an amazing life and a brilliant career, and he wrote with eloquence, passion, and truth. These letters are to be treasured. Andre Bishop, Producing Artistic Director, Lincoln Center Theater Elia Kazan s letters crackle with the impulsive exuberance of a vital, brilliant, ambitious man wholly devoted to craft. And they tell the not-to-be-missed story of American politics and American art, deeply entwined, during the fatally conflicted era that is our inheritance. Brenda Wineapple, author of White Heat Compulsively readable . . . Few entertainment figures had the particular combination of passion, feistiness, diligence, and longevity that made Kazan such a prodigious letter writer. The Selected Letters is a history of the golden age of Broadway and Hollywood as seen through the eyes of a man who irrevocably transformed both industries. Julian Sancton, Departures Elia Kazan lived, directed, and wrote from his gut. He was a powerhouse. His scrupulously edited Selected Letters carries the same unflinching, instinctive, brilliant wallop: vividly alive, self-aware, fervent, resourceful. . . . They are incandescent witness to the century he so fiercely bustled in. John Lahr

This book testifies to Kazan's central importance in the maturing of American film and theater in their defining century. His impassioned stewardship of the work of Miller and Williams was crucial to its success; the Actors Studio was the font of the most important developments in the art of performance that America produced; he was a pioneer in asserting the rights of film directors to wrest control of their movies from producers. He was often fighting for himself, but he was also fighting a larger battle on behalf of the art forms he cared so passionately about . . . His complicated personality bristles forth, like a constant chorus of firecrackers . . . Kazan's unstoppable drive and restless energy . . . spring from almost every page of this meaty volume . . . The breath of Kazan's achievement during his prime is unmatched by any other American director. -- Charles Isherwood, The New York Times Book Review Vivid, pungent and forceful, Elia Kazan's letters immerse us in the life of a working director--and not just any director. Kazan was an important, influential figure in 20th-century American culture . . . Kazan comes across as a strong, self-confident artist, unafraid to voice opinions he knows may upset . . . as a shrewd observer of other people and a self-aware analyst of his own character . . . His commitment and integrity are even more evident in correspondence with studio executives over censorship troubles . . . An honest look at a complicated artist. -- Wendy Smith, The Washington Post Fascinating . . . These letters show Kazan creating a blueprint for the kind of work he believed was important and going on to succeed beyond his wildest expectations . . . They show his many strategies for getting exactly what he wanted; for someone who turned his scorn for Hollywood into a running refrain, he was a sharp businessman who knew how to negotiate canny business deals. They illustrate his analyses of a play or a screenplay's flaws in ways meant to improve it, especially when trying to translate his thoughts into language any actor could follow . . . Vibrant . . . Essential . . . A valuable contribution to theater history. --Janet Maslin, The New York Times These vibrant, muscular, outspoken, take-no-prisoners letters tell you everything you will ever need to know about the theater, relationships between artists, Hollywood illusions, affairs of the heart, family. Kazan had an amazing life and a brilliant career, and he wrote with eloquence, passion, and truth. These letters are to be treasured. -- Andre Bishop, Producing Artistic Director, Lincoln Center Theater Elia Kazan lived, directed, and wrote from his gut. He was a powerhouse. His scrupulously edited Selected Letters carries the same unflinching, instinctive, brilliant wallop: vividly alive, self-aware, fervent, resourceful--they exude the pulse of a man fighting for his identity and for his place in American theater. The letters cover his struggles with the Group Theatre and Actors Studio, with his collaborators (Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, William Inge, Marlon Brando, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, among many), and with himself and his family. They are incandescent witness to the century he so fiercely bustled in. Taken together with Kazan's memoir, A Life, the volumes are among the essential documents of twentieth-century American theater. --John Lahr Elia Kazan's letters crackle with the impulsive exuberance of a vital, brilliant, ambitious man wholly devoted to craft. And they tell the not-to-be-missed story of American politics and American art, deeply entwined, during the fatally conflicted era that is our inheritance. -- Brenda Wineapple Engrossing . . . An impressive work of scholarship, this collection offers a sweeping look at sixty years of American popular culture and an intimate portrait of one complex man whirling at its center. --Kirkus Reviews Compulsively readable . . . Few entertainment figures had the particular combination of passion, feistiness, diligence, and longevity that made Kazan such a prodigious letter writer. The Selected Letters is a history of the golden age of Broadway and Hollywood as seen through the eyes of a man who irrevocably transformed both industries, even as he ran afoul of them by naming names in the McCarthy hearings of 1952. It charts Kazan's long, rocky friendship with Tennessee Williams, his beefs with Clifford Odets and John Steinbeck, his battles with the censors over A Streetcar Named Desire and with Marlon Brando over On the Waterfront, all the while displaying an artistic integrity and social consciousness so rare in film today. -- Julian Sancton, Departures

Author Information

Elia Kazan was born in 1909 in Istanbul, graduated from Williams College, and attended the Yale School of Drama before joining the Group Theatre. He was the founder of the Actors Studio, and won three Tony Awards (All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, J.B.) and two Academy Awards (Gentleman's Agreement, On the Waterfront) for direction, as well as an honorary Oscar in 1999 for lifetime achievement. He wrote seven novels and an autobiography. He died in 2003. Albert J. Devlin, professor emeritus of English at the University of Missouri, has written and edited books on Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams. He received a senior fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for work on The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, which the Modern Language Association recognized as a ""model edition"" of letters and on which it bestowed the Morton N. Cohen Award in 2001. Marlene J. Devlin graduated from the University of Kansas. She taught at the University of Missouri and Columbia Public Schools.

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