Best Selling Books by Lincoln Kirstein

The Igor Stravinsky correspondence on The Rake''s Progress consists of correspondence, dated May 1950 to May 1951, between Stravinsky and his lawyer in New York, L. Arnold Weissberger, concerning the mounting of his opera, The Rake''s Progress. Also included are copies of letters to F. H. Ricketson of the Central Civic Opera House Association, Denver, Colorado; Lincoln Kirstein; Howard Taubmann of the New York Times; and Betty Bean and Dr. E. Roth of Stravinsky''s publishers, Boosey & Hawkes, London. The letters discuss business matters pertaining to the production of the opera, financial support for the work, where to stage the premier (including discussions about a possible staging at USC), locations for the opera''s American debut, problems associated with Italian singers performing in English, and various other financial and administrative matters pertaining to the completion and production of the work. Stravinsky''s letters to Weissberger are on his personal letterhead with his Los Angeles address, "1260 N. Wetherly Drive, Hollywood 46, California."

Reminiscences of a visit with his a friend and mentor, Payson Walker Loomis, to Prieuré des Basses Loges in the 1920''s where he met the philosopher Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff had established his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at the priory in 1922.