Bernstein Leonard - On the road & off the record with Leonard Bernstein: my years with the exasperating genius

IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged, that every writer dreams of an ideal reader. Two very real readers volunteered for that role, relieving me of my daydreams: Henry Adams, who knew nothing of my four years as Bernsteins assistant, and David Thomas, who knew plenty, though from a tangential slant. My thanks to Henry and David for steering me toward the better word, the consistent voice, and the honest examination of these four peculiar years.

Though he wrote the definitive Bernstein biography, Humphrey Burton said what every memoirist wants to hear: All this is new to me. Humphreys candor gives me hope that this memoir fills a niche. Thank you, Humphrey and Christina Burton.

Cage Ames is so well-read and articulate, she must have been born speaking in complete sentences. Thank you, Cage, for your tireless assistance and encouragement, pots of tea, freshly baked cookies, and diversionary chat about the Yankees.

Elaine Wang Meyerhoffer offered word choices and grammatical fixes that eluded this first-time author, for which I am very grateful. Thank you Elaine, and thank you, Richard Bentley, for introducing us.

To my final reader, Beth Hughes, thank you for saying, Put it away. Youre done.

My thanks to all who read sample chapters and begged for more: Alison Ames; Alexander Bernstein, Jamie Bernstein Thomas, and Nina Bernstein Simmons, whose joy and kindness are the finest tributes to their remarkable parents; Helene Blue; John Clingerman and Douglas Myhra, Colin Dunn and Bruce MacRae, my adopted siblings on two continents; Paul Epstein, who should have a late-night TV show explaining legal terms; Ella Fredrickson; Roger and Linda James; Liz Lear and Deems Webster; Laurence McCulloch and Bill Hayton; Mike Miller and Tim Weedlun, for housing and humoring me during my Library of Congress immersions; Lee and Tony Pirrotti; Rene Reder and Dan Keys; stalwart Tony Rickard; life-saver Marilyn Steiner; Aaron Stern; Tom Takaro; Mark Adams Taylor; my personal laugh-therapy group, Leslie Tomkins and Michael Barrett; Alina Voicu and Daniel Szasz; my dear friend and mentor, Charles Webb, witness to my long journey from the start; and Mark Wilson.

Affectionate thanks to the friends, family, and colleagues of Leonard Bernstein, living and departed, who consistently encouraged me as I batted my way through the years in this memoir. Starting with those I think of every day: Jennie Bernstein and her sisters, Dorothy Goldstein and Bertha Resnick; Adrienne Barth; Justin and Elaine Brown; Margaret Carson; Schuyler Chapin; Betty Comden; Valentina Cortese; Ann Dedman; Martha Gellhorn; Adolph Green and Phyllis Newman; Dsi Halban; Irma Lazarus and Elsa Kaim; Ruth Mense; Patti Pulliam; Sid and Gloria Ramin; Halina Rodzinski; Stephen Sondheim; Michael Tilson Thomas and Joshua Robison; Wally Toscanini; Fritz and Sigrid Willheim; Harriet Wingreen; and the indispensable Julia Vega.

Gratitude also to: Kazuko Amano, John Malcolm Brinnin, Marshall Burlingame, Helen Coates, Bruce Coughlin, Jobst Eberhardt, Jack Gottlieb, Kuni Hashimoto, Gail Jacobs, Gilbert Kaplan, Dorothee Koehler, Harry Kraut (for hiring me), Dale Kugel, Robert Lantz, Arthur Laurents, James Levine, Christa Ludwig, Pali Meller Marcovicz, John and Betty Mauceri, Erich and Jutta Mauermann, Carlos Moseley, Kurt Ollmann, Richard Ortner, Eiji Oue, Vivian Perlis, Todd and Helen Perry, Hanno Rinke, Jerome Robbins, Ned Rorem, Asadour Santourian, Jonathan Sheffer, Avi Shoshani, Roger and Christine Stevens, Auro Varani, Hans Weber, Richard Wilbur, and Stephen Wadsworth Zinsser.

Thanks to the many people I met through working for Bernstein and who remain friends to this day: David Abell and Seann Alderking, Phillip Allen, Marin Alsop, Franco Amurri, Robert Arbuckle, Betty Auman and Chris Pino, David Bachman, Ellen and Ian Ball, Susann Baumgrtel, Johnny Bayless, Burton Bernstein, Karen Bernstein, Stephen Blier, Daryl Bornstein, Serge Boyce, Garnett Bruce, Amy Burton and John Musto, Finn Byrhard, Flavio Chamis, Steve Clar, Ned Davies, Robert Dawson, Emil DeCou, Clare Dibble, Gail Dubinbaum, Roger Englander, Marcia Farabee, Eliot Feld, Martin Fleischmann, Joel Friedman and Jenny Bilfield, Carlo and Giovanni Gavazzeni, Domiziana Giordano, Linda Golding, John Grande, Sara Griffin, Emily Grishman, David Gruender, Paul Gunther, Dan Gustin, Erik Haagensen and Joe McConnell, Connie Haumann, Barbara Haws and William Josephson, Marilyn Herring, David Israel, Diane Kesling, Sue Klein, Frank Korach, Eric Latzky, Holly Mentzer, Linda Indian, Gail Jacobs, Wolf-Dieter and Amalia Karwatky, Peter Kazaras and Armin Baier, Jim Kendrick, Steve Masterson, Larry Moore, Kent Nagano, Richard Nelson, Clint Nieweg, David Pack, Kevin Patterson, Gideon Paz, Sandra Pearson, John Perkel, Shirley Rhoades Perl, Charley Prince, Philip von Raabe, Gottfried Rabl, Madina Ricordi, Paul Sadowski, Karen Schnackenberg, George Steel and both his Sarahs, Mimsy Gill Stirn, Steve Sturk, Robert Sutherland, Larry Tarlow, Alessio Vlad, Johnny Walker, Ray White, John Van Winkle, George Wolfe, Paul Woodiel, and Patrick Zwick.

Of my post-Bernstein friends, no less encouraging than those listed above, I must thank Yaniv and Meredith Attar, Christopher Confessore and Bethany Barnhorst, Barry and Deirdre Cullen, Barron and Mary Melton, Mark and Laura Patrick, and David and Anne Pandolfi.

Craig Urquhart gets a thank-you all his own; he held the fort to the end.