Mosaic: Memoirs

by Lincoln Kirstein

The evocative reminiscences of one of America's great men of modern American culture focuses on Kirstein's youth and early struggle for identity, from his childhood in Boston to his world travels, culminating in his 1933 attempts to bring Balanchine to the U.S.

Genres: Memoir

268 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Eric Byrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may have over-emphasized impressions of secondary handicrafts adorning my childhood. The immediacy of their presence, the effect of their tangible proximity, the enigmas of their shape, stuff, and origin, made me partner in my mother's program of providing a suitable background for augmented inheritance.

Yeah, he really writes like that. Kirstein is the ultimate coterie writer: transcendently lucid, miraculously wise...but only if you share his preoccupations. Which I happen to. And his style is unashamedly idiosyncratic--there isn't a line in this book that isn't complicated by some antique usage or strange evocation or sly ellipsis. With Henry James, he currently sponsors my geekiest prolixities.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly a mosaic of Lincoln Kirstein’s life, each chapter a standalone vignette of his evolution into the world of arts and letters: together a picture of his the early part of his life leading to his preeminence in American ballet., or, rather American Ballet. His writing is very self aware and self conscious, as though he can’t get out of his way in writing this memoir. But that is who he was in these years of his life, growing up gay, or at bisexual, and Jewish almost a century ago. He led a rarified existence and the incidents of his years at school and abroad so casually leavened with names requiring frequent dashes to Google for some insight and context provide some of the complex pieces of this work.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirstein is a giant in 20th century arts. This book late in his life did much to perpetuate the myth he wanted to impart.