Thou swell, thou witty: The life and lyrics of Lorenz Hart Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm giving this 5 stars, though Dorothy Hart (editor and wife of Larry's brother) deserves only 4. First the bad stuff. The lyrics (and it doesn't even come close to being a complete collection) are rife with typos, lines left out of stanzas, words changed (e.g. in "Way Out West," the line in the verse Hart wrote goes "Where seldom is heard an intelligent word," his sister-in-law wrote "...discouraging word"). That's the bad part. If you want to read a complete (?) collection of Hart's lyrics with all the verses, choruses and no typos, I think there's still one out there, my copy (bought when it was released) is hardbound, but I think I heard that it's come out in paperback. Now the good stuff. This book is filled with magazine and newspaper articles about Hart contemporary with him, recollections by his contemporaries (including Vivienne Segal), a plethora of photos, and information about Hart from Dorothy. I found it fascinating. I also found it in a dark and dusty corner of a used book store in NYC brand new but already oop. If you like Rodgers and Hart or Hart, I highly recommend flushing out a copy. Maybe an old beat up one just to read and look at if not a nice new one to cherish and save. The dust cover of mine is on the tattered side now.

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