Isadora: A Sensational Life - Hardcover

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Peter Kurth is the author of numerous books, a contributing writer for Salon, and has written for Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Observer and other publications. He lives in Vermont.

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Known to some as a leading light of early modern dance and to others as an ill-starred celebrity of the early 20th century (she was strangled when the long scarf she was wearing caught in the rear wheel of a sports car in which she was riding), Isadora Duncan has been the subject of a number of biographies and films over the years. On and off stage Duncan was unconventional, free-spirited, and, to purists of dance and morality, downright shocking. Her style of dance (incorporating everyday movements like skipping and jumping) and dress (barefoot, uncorseted, Grecian-style gowns) were unheard of even in the theater of those late Victorian times. Kurth, a regular contributor to Salon.com and author of American Cassandra: The Life of Dorothy Thompson and Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson, has fashioned a luminous portrait, aglow with the details of Duncan's life and times. Mining the rich lode of Duncan sources her own writings, recollections of her contemporaries and press coverage of the day Kurth presents as complete a picture of the dance pioneer and proto-feminist as is possible. Although only a few minutes of Duncan's dancing have been preserved on film, the vivid descriptions found here will conjure up moving images of one of the most original figures in dance history. Recommended for all libraries. Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kurth (Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson) presents an exhaustive march through an exhausting, tragic life, organizing endless material into a coherent chronology. Duncan's contributions to dance are better documented and analyzed elsewhere. With minimum commentary, Kurth follows Duncan's frenetic existence from her 1877 birth in San Francisco until her infamous death (when her scarf caught in the wheel of her car, strangling her) in France in 1927. Duncan, her sister and two brothers, professionally entwined throughout their lives, spent early childhood vacillating between luxury and penury (her financier/swindler father, an integral part of San Francisco's 1877 banking collapse, was prone to long disappearances), a tendency which prevailed throughout their adulthood. Duncan seemed marked by tragedy: various fires destroyed belongings and homes (her earliest memory was of being tossed from the window of a burning building); her father died in a shipwreck; two of her children perished when a chauffeur rolled their car into the Seine; the third died shortly after birth. Throughout adulthood, Duncan moved restlessly and incessantly about, principally from Paris to Berlin to Russia. She danced, drank and enjoyed volatile long-term relationships while simultaneously leaping into bed with numerous so-called geniuses. Occasional professional successes peppered Duncan's life, but perhaps her most defining experience was her 1922 marriage to the mad, alcoholic and abusive Russian poet Esenin. By the time of his suicide in 1925, the couple had essentially destroyed each other professionally and personally. Neither a dance history nor a portrait of an era although Duncan knew everyone and participated in everything this book instead offers a meticulous chronology of an extraordinary life. (Nov. 15)Forecast: This is not, as the publisher claims, "the first major biography" of Isadora (Frederika Blair's predates it by 15 years). Its exhaustive rather than illuminative qualities will limit its readership to the most dedicated dance fans.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* Duncan, the mother of modern dance, made art her faith and Walt Whitman and the ancient Greeks her mentors and lived an ardent and revolutionary life. Barefoot and clad in loose, flowing garments, she responded directly to the music rather than conforming to traditional choreography, igniting raging debates about art, sexuality, and propriety. Displaying a confounding mix of altruism and mercenariness, she supported her divorced mother and recalcitrant siblings, performed for adoring standing-room-only audiences all across America, Europe, and Russia during the First World War and well into the 1920s, and established schools for her Isadorables even as she was condemned for her licentiousness, financial shenanigans, and half-baked radical politics. Visionary, courageous, rash, and mercurial, Duncan has never been portrayed with such tireless attention to detail. Kurth, the author of Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexander (1995), diligently tracks Duncan's every triumph and tragedy, skillfully excerpts her writings and other invaluable sources, and sets her entire complex milieu in motion. In awe, he wisely restricts himself to precision reporting, leaving aesthetic and psychological interpretations for other scholars, who, like all of Kurth's fascinated readers, will be grateful for his herculean effort and abiding respect. Donna Seaman
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