List Price: $20.00
Save: $2.06 (10%)

FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Want it Saturday, April 23? Order within and choose Saturday Delivery at checkout. Details

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

Buy Used

$5.33

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Grateful4U

Fulfilled by Amazon

Condition: Used: Very Good

Comment: Ships fast directly from Amazon! Overnight and expedited available. Book is in gently used and well cared for condition. Remainder mark on bottom edge.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Dazzler: The Life And Times Of Moss Hart Paperback – April 30, 2002

by Steven Bach (Author)

22 customer reviews

See all 4 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

$9.13

$0.01

Paperback

"Please retry"

$17.94

$4.98

$1.08

From the Algonquin Round Table to the Gershwins and the Hollywood moguls, Moss Hart knew and delighted everybody. Vanity Fair has called him "one of American theater's greatest geniuses," the man responsible for such indelible successes as A Star Is Born, Camelot, and My Fair Lady. His rags-to-riches autobiography, Act One, became one of the most successful and beloved books ever published about the lure of the theater. But it ended at the beginning—when Hart was only twenty-five. Now, at last, we have the whole and far richer story in this first full-scale biography of "the Prince of Broadway." Here Steven Bach explores the private Moss Hart, revealing his struggles with self-doubt, depression, and sexual identity, and the public one, recounting his creativity and charisma, his wit and grace. With thorough research and graceful prose, Steven Bach takes us on a journey to another time and place, where one man created a dazzling world for himself and for all American theatergoers.

Dazzler: The Life And Times Of Moss Hart

$17.94 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

Total price: $43.95

Buy the selected items together

This item:Dazzler: The Life And Times Of Moss Hart by Steven Bach Paperback $17.94
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Act One: An Autobiography by Moss Hart Paperback $13.03
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Three Plays by Kaufman and Hart: Once in a Lifetime, You Can't Take It with You and The Man Who Came… by George S. Kaufman Paperback $12.98
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Moss Hart

114

Paperback
$13.03
George S. Kaufman

8

Paperback
$12.98
Alan Jay Lerner

27

Paperback
Jack Viertel

27

in Drama Literary Criticism
Hardcover
$18.51
Kitty Carlisle Hart

8

Hardcover
Jared Brown

5

Hardcover

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Series: Life and Times of Moss Hart
Paperback: 504 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press (April 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0306811359
ISBN-13: 978-0306811357
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,126,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #276 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Television > Direction & Production
- #504 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Classical
- #563 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Theatre

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

(What's this?)

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		59%
4 star		32%
3 star		9%
2 star		0%
1 star		0%

See all 22 customer reviews

Share your thoughts with other customers

Write a customer review

Top Customer Reviews

Act Two

By Gary Britson on May 1, 2001

Format: Hardcover

This book covers the material we enjoyed in Act One, then picks up where Act One left off, at which point things get very interesting indeed. His youth wasn't nearly as grim as he would have us believe, and his later years weren't as much fun as we would have imagined. Bach has certainly done his research. The more interested you are in theater history and the small details of each production, the more you'll enjoy Dazzler. Even if you're not crazy about theater, you might enjoy watching the rise of a genius. It's smooth and insightful and never boring. Keep it with your biographies of Kaufmann. You'll want to come back to it the next time you view The Man Who Came to Dinner and You Can't Take It With You.

Comment 15 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

The Charming Mr. Hart

By sweetmolly on June 25, 2001

Format: Hardcover

He was a thoroughly delightful man. Most of us met him in “Act One” his best-selling autobiography published in the late ‘50’s. Apparently, he tidied up his life a mite in that story. But that’s what playwrights do; give us the best story possible.
“Dazzler” is a well-done biography that is a treasure trove of show business history as well as a deep and compelling study of Moss Hart. I would call this a “definitive” biography except for some reason Mr. Hart’s widow, the charming Kitty Carlisle, did not cooperative with the author. Therefore, there are probably many papers that still can be brought to light.
I was a little put off by Mr. Bach’s tone at the beginning of the book, it seemed lightly touched with superiority toward his subject. Yes, Moss Hart was extravagant, a bit of a dandy..., and sometimes—very rarely—forgot to credit the people who helped him on the way up. When the author hits his stride, this tone disappears, and we see Moss Hart clearly as the energetic, generous, brilliant man that he was. He left whatever he touched more colorful and replaced the humdrum with magic.
The description of the complete, astounding success of “My Fair Lady’s” opening night, which Hart directed, is the stuff of which movies are made. This was a pinnacle of life experience for everyone who participated. Reading about the making of “My Fair Lady” alone is worth the price of the book.
When the book was over, I wished there were more triumphs to reveal, and that Mr. Hart lived to write “Act II.” A highly readable book with a dazzling subject.

Comment 16 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

UN-PUT-DOWNABLE

By MOVIE MAVEN on November 24, 2001

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

Moss Hart was not only a brilliant talent who wrote and/or directed some of the finest plays and musicals of the twentieth century, he also wrote, to my mind, the finest non-fiction book written about life in the theatre: ACT ONE. Unfortunately, he died before he could write the second and third acts. Stephen Bach has taken up the task of writing that book for Hart and he does it wonderfully--if, perhaps, a little more openly and honestly than Hart might have liked.
A successful, leading playwright on Broadway when still in his twenties, Hart could never really reconcile himself to his humble origins nor to his family members, including his parents, who never quite "got" what their son needed or wanted or deserved and who never really found out how to live comfortably in his own skin with decades of huge successes.
Mood swings of manic depression plagued him his entire life as did his confusion over his own sexual identity. He was also a man who could quite easily and conveniently "forget" some of those friends who had helped him when he was struggling, professionally and personally. Bach does not write a gossipy tell-all, but lets his readers know that Hart's life was not as sublime as it must have seemed by outsiders.
The book is filled with myriad examples of what Broadway and Hollywood was like in the first half of the last century: why plays like ONCE IN A LIFETIME were hits and why others like LIGHT UP THE SKY were not. Why Hart's sense of timing most always seemed to serve him well: i.e. YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU coming at just the right time for a celebration of the individuality and originality of the American spirit. Celebrity after celebrity worked with Hart: George S.Read more ›

Comment 9 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

Is there anything better than reading about Moss Hart?

By Rebecca on September 27, 2012

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

Hard to find a book about Moss Hart that wouldn't be good, he had such an amazingly large, funny and engaging personality. If you've read Moss's famous Act One: An Autobiography this book adds the framework and trims out the dramatic embellishments that Moss made about his life and per this book, there was a fair amount of embellishment.

In addition to being wildly successful on Broadway, Moss had a billion fiercely loyal friends who adored him and it is hard not to share that adoration reading about his flamboyant and entertaining personality.

Also recommend Kitty: An Autobiography by Moss's wife Kitty and Private View by one of his best friends Irene Selznick also a wonderful book about her life as a broadway producer (they worked together) and growing up as the daughter of MGM leader Louis B Mayer and wife of David O Selznick.

Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

An excellent read

By Carol Kelley on August 9, 2013

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

I had always known that Moss Hart had "edited" the facts and incidents in his life, and this book was able to see his life and career with more clarity. As always happens with a biography, Moss comes off as far more egotistical and manipulative than I had thought, but he still was a genius of Musical Theatre. I even went out and bought a copy of the movie of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and loved it all over again. An excellent biography!

Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

See all 22 customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

some interesting insights into the life of a unique figure of Broadway.

Published 8 months ago by David Weinberg

Good book, arrived in good condition

The book arrived in good shape.

Published 11 months ago by Judy the K.

Maybe too much

I have been fascinated with Moss Hart for years and opened this book hoping to learn more about the man .. what I learned was perhaps too much about things I didn't care about. Read more

Published 19 months ago by Neil D. Brown

Five Stars

Very interesting window into the show-biz life of the 40's and 50's.

Published 19 months ago by danny

The truth behind Act One

George Kaufman described Moss Hart's memoir, ACT ONE, as fiction. This book provides the fact behind it. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Marcus

Dazzler!

If you have read "Act One", you must read "Dazzler". By reading both, you have a more complete picture of Moss Hart. Read more

Published on July 24, 2013 by Albert E. Aubin

Well written.

A well researched and written biography. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because Hart turns out to be a less talented, less admirable man than I had always thought. Read more

Published on May 1, 2013 by Beregond

Definitive Biography of a Theatrical Great

Steven Bach was one of the most distinguished and accomplished celebrity biographers. This is a fascinating and detailed biography of the great playwright and director Moss Hart. Read more

Published on October 11, 2012 by J. Beaman

Hart Not to Like

The late Steven Bach, whose own life is worthy of a biography, offers here a scintillating and thoroughly engrossing account of the career of Moss Hart, playwright, director,... Read more

Published on May 21, 2012 by Samuel Leiter

Thorough, but somewhat disappointing

I was greatly looking forward to reading this book, but, like another reviewer, found it rather slow going. Read more

Published on February 19, 2003

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more

This item: Dazzler: The Life And Times Of Moss Hart

Set up a giveaway