My First 79 Years [Hardcover]

Isaac Stern (Author), Chaim Potok (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 1999

For sixty-four years, Isaac Stern has been a great--and greatly loved--performing artist, famous for his profound music-making, his gusto for life, his passionate dedication to sharing his knowledge and wisdom with younger musicians, and his determination in a good cause (Stern is, after all, The Man Who Saved Carnegie Hall). Indeed, there is no more revered musician in the world than Isaac Stern, revered not only as a great violinist but as a warm and generous personality and as a crucial figure and spokesperson in the world of the arts.

Brought to America from Russia when he was ten months old, Stern grew up in San Francisco and was quickly recognized as an extraordinary talent. He began performing publicly while still very young, and was soon touring across the country and around the world. His fame escalated when he led the fight to save Carnegie Hall, and again when he was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary film From Mao to Mozart.

In this book he shares with us both his personal and his artistic experiences: the story of his rise to eminence; his feelings about music and the violin; his rich emotional life; his great friendships and collaborations with colleagues such as Leonard Bernstein and Pablo Casals; his background as an ardent supporter of Israel; his ideas and beliefs about art, life, love, and the world we live in.

At seventy-nine, Stern's mind, his wit, and his spirit are as strong as ever, and they are conveyed to us in the most sympathetic and articulate way by Chaim Potok. The two men spent a year talking and sharing their perceptions, and the result is a book in which Stern's voice comes through with complete conviction and persuasiveness. The man on the page is
the musician and humanitarian we have loved and admired for so long. Here is the most readable and revealing musical autobiography of the decade.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The conductor George Szell once told Isaac Stern that if he spent less time doing other things and more time practicing he could be "the greatest violinist in the world." Since those "other things" included saving Carnegie Hall from the wrecker's ball, generously sponsoring young artists like Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, and touring the world as an ambassador of American classical performance, music lovers can only be grateful that Stern settled for being one of the world's great violinists. His appealing memoir reveals a well-rounded man with a gusto for life beyond the concert hall that made his passion for music all the more fulfilling. Born on the Russian-Polish border in 1920, Stern grew up in San Francisco and by age 6 already displayed a precocious musical gift. His assessment of his abilities is refreshingly free of false modesty, while his enthusiastic appreciation for such fellow artists as Pablo Casals, Leonard Bernstein, and Rudolf Serkin keeps him from seeming like an egomaniac. Perhaps because of the contributions of coauthor Chaim Potok (author of The Chosen and other novels), the prose here is smoother and less self-conscious than in many performers' memoirs. It limns a vigorous, busy life dedicated to the idea that music has the power to break down barriers between people and nations. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly

As one might expect, the more engaging elements in this autobiography occur when Stern, world-renowned violinist (or as he would have it, "fiddler") and music education activist, discusses playingAand not just his own. Stern seems most excited when discussing performances by others (mainly classical musicians and conductors), including Naoum Blinder, Pierre Monteux and Leonard Bernstein. The virtuoso also details his childhood and formal training: Stern, it seems, had very little of either. Born and raised by middle-class Russian-Ukrainian immigrant parents in San Francisco, Stern credits his interest in the violin to a childhood friend: "My friend Nathan Koblick was playing the violin; therefore, I wanted to play the violin." Rather than bloat his talent or sense of destiny, Stern is given to frank statements such as, "It seems I may have been the first American violinist to do a tour of the major Soviet cities." Coauthor Potok's (The Promise) narrative touch is clear; instead of technical jargon, classical pieces are described through setting and emotion. Occasionally, lifeless passages diminish substanceAe.g., long transcriptions of personal tapes Stern sent his family while out on the road; and there are windy clich?s: on meeting President Kennedy, Stern writes, "I felt as though I were inside a golden coach drawn by four pure-bred white horses into the glitter of mythic Camelot." But after three marriages, four kids and a 60-plus-year career that spans playing in Carnegie Hall to saving it from demolition, to touring the world dozens of times over, a man is entitled to a few clich?s. Photos. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (October 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679451307
• ISBN-13: 978-0679451303
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,866,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I agree with "thepageturner", February 17, 2000

By 

John Grabowski (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My First 79 Years (Hardcover)

My first reaction when I started reading this book was exactly the same as the first review in the list here. Isaac Stern is a man with many fascinating stories, but in the book they don't have time to breathe. There's little detail, the book jumps from one subject to the next in short, bland paragraphs, and there's little of Stern's wit and insight. We also don't get much about how Stern feels about the music he plays, or the composers who created it. In short, the book skims the surface of a potentially fascinating subject. Pity.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, considering the author's life, January 8, 2002

By 

C. Noble (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My First 79 Years (Hardcover)

I picked this book up as a used trade paperback, and I'm glad that I [didn't spend to much] for it. I was expecting much more. The narrative is quite choppy, with not much of a sense of continuity. Some of the critical issues/events, such as his refusual to perform in Germany and his divorce from his first wife are discussed with a severe lack of candor. The German thing bothers me the most, I feel like he felt the need to be politically correct - I would not fault him for feeling very negative feelings and being unable to overcome them even after many years. But he keeps saying that the Germans are a fine people, cognisent of their own history, and does not address his feelings on the matter in a fully satisfying way. I guess this is the flaw of the autobiography, though some authors have given their lives an unsparing look, to both their and the readers' benefit. There is much writing about his life of touring and of saving Carnegie Hall, but I never got a sense of the personal feelings and struggle that went into this staggeringly busy and full life. There are hints here and there, but it reads like an extended New Yorker puff piece much of the time. If you want an overview of a great life, but not much detail or meaningful introspection, then this book will serve your needs. For everyone else, wait for the first "unauthorized" biography.

31 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rushed telling of an amazing life, November 28, 1999

By 

Candace "thepageturner" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My First 79 Years (Hardcover)

The best thing about "My First 79 Years" is that it put Isaac Stern on book tour. Hearing him in an interview is such a delight; you wish the conversation with this intelligent, charming, generous, and of course, gloriously musical man would go on forever.

So why is this book so much less satisfying? Especially when it was co-written with Chaim Potok. Isaac Stern's voice does not seem to shine through, nor does his music. Why does the telling of some of his most remarkable feats (saving Carnegie Hall or visiting closed China) seem flat when they shimmer with excitement when he tells them on radio or film? I hope Isaac Stern lives another 79 years and takes a second crack at recording his remarkable life.