Schickel - Elia Kazan: a Biography

For Thomas Berger
and Robert Kotlowitz
and in memory of David T. Bazelon

Friends, Mentors, Exemplars

No mere page-turner, this is a page-devourer, generating the kind of suspense that is usually the province of the playwright or novelist.

New York Times Book Review

No mere page-turner, this is a page-devourer, generating the kind of suspense that is usually the province of the playwright or novelist. We are taken in breathtaking, often riotous, but never excessive, detail through Kazans many achievements. A stirring bit of social history and a panorama of Broadway and Hollywood during what may have been their glory days. It could not be a more pertinent study of a spellbinding subject.

John Simon, New York Times Book Review

A scintillating and thoroughly readable new biography. Though his artistic and ethical conclusions on Kazan will no doubt provoke a storm of protest among both old and new leftists, Schickel has earned the right to his judgments through careful evaluation of the facts. For those of us separated by decades from the internecine squabbles of the postwar American left, Schickels argument is compelling.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In this sympathetic, scrupulously researched biography, film scholar and Time critic Richard Schickel vividly conveys the directors potent personality: his exuberance, relentless work ethic, and frank assessments of the fleeting nature of fame.

Booklist (starred review)

[A] masterly meditation on a complex, conflicted, and underappreciated director. One of the years best biographies.

Library Journal

This book is a fountain of useful information about Kazans theatrical productions and films, augmented by startling passages from the subjects diaries. It is also, as any critical biography should be, remarkably insightfulSchickel has a razor-sharp understanding of the many ways in which his subjects life and work affected each other.

Martin Scorsese

A worthy companion to the directors own autobiography. One of the best things about this immensely likable book is the passion with which the author writes about forgotten theater productions of the 1930s and 1940s that sought to wed art and politics. The book is a history of an era and an invitation to rediscover a filmmaker whose best moments seem to imprint their subject, life itself, directly on the screen.

The Economist

Richard Schickel has written a splendid, subtle, literate biography of one of the grand creative artists of theater and film in our time.

Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

This analysis is unsparingly thorough, to the point where Schickels forceful, personalized criticism becomes as attention grabbing as Kazans body of work.

Publishers Weekly

Richard Schickel has produced the first life of Kazan [with] an impressive knowledge of the terrain [and] soundly balanced judgments.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

Schickel provides valuable insight into Kazans work. These appraisals, notable for their broad critical vision, may persuade some to reconsider Kazans work, if not his political behavior.

Kirkus Reviews

Richard Schickel is one of Americas most indispensable film critics. Now hes written a brilliant and insightful biography of the director Elia Kazan, covering his art, his controversial politics, and his tumultuous private life. Schickels three-dimensional portrait is absolutely fascinating. Its a fitting tribute to Kazans greatness, laid out with precision, tact, and crisp intelligence.

Patricia Bosworth, author of Diane Arbus: A Biography

[Elia Kazan] contains not a single dull moment for those interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects of theater and movies something rare in this kind of book.

New York Press

Outstanding. Schickels book is a critical biography. So while his personal life and profligate ways are not overlooked, the bulk of Elia Kazan, the book, is focused on his work. A longtime film critic for Time magazine, Schickels analysis is perceptive. He did his homework for this book and it shows. Perhaps, thanks to Schickels biography, history will once again remember Kazan primarily for his accomplishments, not his testimony.

Milwaukee Journal

Schickel is as deft at revealing Kazans working methods as the director was at motivating performers and grasping the dramatic essence of a scene.

Chicago Tribune

One of those exhilarating publishing raritiesthe ideal writer for the ideal subject.

Buffalo News

It is said that the bloodlines of every thoroughbred racing today can be traced directly back to four Godolphin Arabians. By tracing the creative development of Kazan and his cast of characters so clearly and intimately, Schickel has written a fascinating collective history of theater and film over the last six decades. He has given us our theatrical bloodlines and our past with, as Edmund Wilson would say, the shock of recognition. Anyone who dreams of a future in theater or film should read this book.

Robert Towne

Theater and film buffsnot to mention scholarswill revel in this astute explication of a working life. What is just as extraordinary is Mr. Schickels presentation of American political thought as it filtered through the artistic and commercial environs of Kazans world.

New York Sun

A thoughtful attempt to sum up the career of the only major American director to have worked simultaneously and successfully in both film and theater. Just as important, though, Elia Kazan: A Biography tells the unvarnished truth about Stalinism on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Terry Teachout, National Review

Dense and provocative.

Charleston Post and Courier

Schickel is full of interesting insights and ideas. He breaks down the themes of A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman with clarity and grace, and he usually is correct about what cast and crew members were assets or drags on productions.

Asbury Park Press

When he turns to Kazans theatrical productions and films, Schickel is surefooted and shrewd, a master storyteller. Bad actors are good in courtroom scenes, he tells us, because audiences expect lawyers to be full of fraudulent outrage and fake moralizing. Elia Kazan is a treasure trove of show business lore.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Mr. Schickel tells the story well and chattily, never reluctant to give his own opinions, whether artistic or political and though hes aware of Kazans flaws, hes generally willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

New York Observer

Schickel describes his book as a critical biography. It is this, but much more. He analyses in minute detail Kazans works, his Communist sympathies, and his love of the theater. But he also expresses some strong opinions about the U.S. political sceneits left wing, and the history of theater and film. His awe of his subject overtakes him from time to time, but his objectivity as a critic keeps his narrative in check.

Edmonton Journal (Alberta)

Elia is here. Master of American theater, wizard at movies, deceiver, friend, combatant, the book vibrates with the energy of the man. Work, women, worship, and loathing, Kazans story is keenly told.

Arthur Penn, director of The Miracle Worker