Seldes, Barry: Leonard Bernstein: The Political Life of An American Musician

From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. This biography examines Bernstein's career against the backdrop of cold war America - blacklisting by the State Department in 1950 and voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted.