Act One: An Autobiography

Act One: An Autobiography
by Moss Hart

Act One: An Autobiography
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Book Summary Information

Author: Moss Hart
Introduction: Woody Allen
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-10-15
ISBN: 0312032722
Number of pages: 456
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Book Reviews of Act One: An Autobiography

Book Review: A one-way ticket to another time and place
Summary: 5 Stars

ACT ONE is not just the engrossing story of a remarkable life -- its a precious gift from an author who captures the spirit of his past and passes it on to us. Moss Hart brings the New York of the early 20th Century to life, immersing the reader in the everyday life of that lost world. The despair of his family's poverty, the challenge of survival, the long-gone Catskill resort camps where he got his start, and the glamour of Broadway in its glory years -- all of these things Hart recalls with such vivid impact that they become tangible realities for us in ACT ONE. While Hart was justly acclaimed as a master playwright and director, ACT ONE proves that he also had a gift for superlative, irresistibly readable prose -- you feel you are listening to this man in warm, intimate conversation. Theatrical legends like Sam Harris and the inscrutible George S. Kauffman become three-dimensional and fascinating. Most importantly, this is one autobiography where the author shares a piece of his soul with the reader. Instead of just telling about his family being poor, he gives us a sense of how poverty can crush the soul -- and, conversely, how escaping from such poverty can set the soul free. The result is an autobiography that is not just interesting or entertaining, but genuinely moving. Hart's passion radiates throughout ACT ONE -- passion for success, for New York, for the theatre. And oh, how he brings you into the world of the theatre as he knew it -- the maddening and eccentric personalities, out of town tryouts, exhausting re-writes, soul-breaking failures and sky-high triumphs. If theatre or New York interest you, you canot afford to miss this book. If you simply love a great read, you also cannot afford to miss this book. We all owe ourselves a little joy, and ACT ONE is a joy from start to finish.

Summary of Act One: An Autobiography

The Dramatic Story that Capitvated a Generation

With this new edition, the classic best-selling autobiography by the late playwright Moss Hart returns to print in the thirtieth anniversary of its original publication. Issued in tandem with Kitty, the revealing autobiography of his wife, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Act One, is a landmark memoir that incluenced a generation of theatergoers, dramatists, and general book readers everywhere. The book eloquently chronicles Moss Hart's impoverished childhood in the Bronx and Brooklyn and his long, determined struggle to his first theatreical Broadway success, Once in a Lifetime. One of the most celebrated American theater books of the twentieth centure and a glorious memorial to a bygone age, Act One if filled with all the wonder, drama, and heartbreak that surrounded Broadway in the 1920s and the years before World War II.

Moss Hart was in the thick of American theater when everyone wore black tie on opening night and the world's most witty people entertained each other around a grand piano at late-night supper parties. It's an era of glamour that will never come again, but we have Hart's words on paper, and that is no small thing. A renowned director and theatrical collaborator, the brilliant Hart died too soon after the curtain went up on Act Two. If you want to know what it was like to be on the inside track in NYC in the '30s, '40s and '50s, here's a good place to find out.

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