Cole Porter composed some of the twentieth century's most evocative music, including 'Night And Day', 'Easy To Love', and 'I've Got You Under My Skin'. His musical scores, notably 'Kiss Me Kate', 'High Society', 'Silk Stockings' and 'Can-Can', shaped three decades of movie-making.
This definitive biography evokes the frenetic glamour of his career on Broadway and in Hollywood. His music was the up-beat accompaniment to the gloomier events of the Depression, the Second World War and the bleak years that followed. However, Porter's own suffering was never hinted at publicly or in his work.
Interweaving his life and music, this book contrasts Porter's raffish, elegant scores with the pain and passion of his life. It reveals the private Porter; the lost privileged man with an irrepressible talent to amuse, who had long-term relationships and frequent dalliances with many men - even though he maintained a loving marriage to the woman he truly adored. Now at last we can fully understand the man, the music and its magic - and see exactly how his doubts, desires and infatuations insinuated their way into the heart of so many brilliant and captivating lyrics.
