The Letters of Noel Coward
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A publishing event! The first and definitive collection of letters (most of them previously unpublished) both from and to the incomparable Noël Coward, a unique and irresistible portrait of a society and age—from the Blitz to the Ritz and beyond. The range, charm, and vitality of his talents—he was a playwright, actor, composer, librettist, lyricist, director, painter, writer, cabaret singer, wit—brought him into close encounters, and often close friendship, with the great and the gifted. He knew everybody who was anybody in the theater and in the movies, in literature and in politics, on both sides of the Atlantic. Among those at his “marvelous party”: George Bernard Shaw . . . T. E. Lawrence . . . Virginia Woolf . . . the Churchills . . . Daphne Du Maurier . . . Greta Garbo (she wrote asking him to marry her; he wrote back saying he almost accepted) . . . Ian Fleming . . . W. Somerset Maugham . . . Marlene Dietrich (he advised her, “To hell with God damned ‘L’Amour.’ It always causes far more trouble than it is worth”) . . . Tallulah Bankhead . . . Edith Sitwell . . . FDR . . . Gertrude Lawrence (in a cable about Private Lives: “Have written delightful new comedy stop good part for you stop wonderful one for me stop”), and many more. There are letters about his productions of Bitter Sweet . . . Cavalcade . . . In Which We Serve . . . Brief Encounter . . . Private Lives, etc. . . . about his activities during World War II (he was a spy for the British government along with co-conspirator Cary Grant) . . . about the move to make him a knight that was endorsed in a personal letter from King George VI and blocked by Winston Churchill. Here are letters to and from his beloved mother, Violet . . . his longtime set and costume designer, Gladys Calthrop . . . his traveling companion from the 1930s on, Lord Amherst . . . and his business manager and onetime lover, Jack Wilson, in which he reveals his “secret heart.”Profoundly savvy, witty, loving, bitchy, and often surprisingly moving, The Letters of Noël Coward gives us “Destiny’s Tot” at his crackling best. An irresistible portrait of a time, of the man himself, and of the world he lived in and enchanted.The New York Times - Janet MaslinAs edited by Barry Day, whose other books have been devoted to Dorothy Parker, P. G. Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde and Sherlock Holmes as well as Coward, these letters highlight not only the meringue wit that obviously delights Mr. Day but also Coward's processes of growth and self-discovery…The Letters of Noel Coward is a transporting epistolary portrait of great range and agility…
List of Illustrations ixIntroduction 3Preface 9"Beginners, Please!"The Boy Actor 13"I Like America" 54"Dance, Dance, Dance, Little Lady" 68Intermission: Dab and Lornie 88The Vortex 107"Why Must the Show Go On?" 123"I'm World Weary, World Weary" 134The Years of GraceThis Year of Grace! 149"Mad Dogs and Englishmen" 166Intermission: Gertrude Lawrence 178Private Lives 209Intermission: Play Parade 223Cavalcade 262Noel & Alfred & Lynn...and Their Design for Living 275Conversation Piece...and Missing the Point 292The Scoundrel...and Still Traveling Alone 308Intermission: Marlene Dietrich 315Tonight at 8:30 332Operette...and Straws in the Wind 351Noel's WarWorld War II: "Twentieth Century Blues" 367"Then Along Came Bill" 395World War II: "Faraway Land" 418World War II: "In Which We Serve" 427World War II: "I Travel Alone" 482Shadow PlaySigh Once More...and a Storm in the Pacific 513The Fallow Forties 529Intermission: A Quadrille...for Two 550...and the Fitful Fifties 565Nescafe Society...and the Small Screen 584Bubbles...and Nudes 610A Different Sky...and a Look at Lulu 642A Visit to "Greeneland"...via Havana 653Wings...and Sails 661Interimission: A Chatter of Chums 688Girls...and Spirits 702"Dad's Renaissance" 718Songs at Twilight 728Shadow of Evening 746Permissions and Acknowledgments 755Index 757
