Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Qty:1
  • List Price: $16.95
  • Save: $2.22 (13%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
Only 3 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Cole Porter has been added to your Cart
Want it tomorrow, April 8? Order within and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Good | Details
Sold by giggil
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Good

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
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

Cole Porter Paperback – December 5, 2000

by
William McBrien (Author)
› Visit Amazon's William McBrien Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
William McBrien (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 36 customer reviews
See all 7 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$12.73
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
$6.85 $0.36
Paperback
"Please retry"
$14.73
$7.75 $0.01
Audio, Cassette, Unabridged, Audiobook
"Please retry"
—
— $709.05
Memoirs of the Rich & Famous
Lust & Wonder: A Memoir
Lust & Wonder: A Memoir
Lust & Wonder: A Memoir
$14.73 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. Only 3 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • Cole Porter
  • +
  • Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story
Total price: $26.90
Buy the selected items together

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.
Back
  1. Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story
    Amanda Vaill
    4.3 out of 5 stars 127
    Paperback
    $12.17 Prime
  2. Fiddler on the Roof (2016 Broadway Cast Recording)
    Danny Burstein
    4.4 out of 5 stars 5
    Audio CD
    $13.99 Prime
  3. Charles Ives Reconsidered (Music in American Life)
    Gayle Sherwood Magee
    2.7 out of 5 stars 3
    Paperback
    $25.00 Prime
  4. Travels With Cole Porter
    Jean Howard
    4.5 out of 5 stars 2
    Hardcover
  5. De-Lovely: The Cole Porter Story (Special Edition)
    Kevin Kline
    4.2 out of 5 stars 455
    DVD
    $7.49 Prime
  6. Amazing Grace (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
    Amazing Grace
    4.9 out of 5 stars 9
    Audio CD
    $14.79 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (December 5, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679727922
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679727927
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.2 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  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

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Memorable Biography of a Brilliant Artist
By Gary F. Taylor HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on June 10, 2004
Format: Hardcover
Cole Porter (1891-1964) determinedly created the image of an extremely wealthy man who traveled the world, played with the rich and famous, and now and then wrote a Broadway show or two for the pure pleasure of it. But although he was in some respects a shallow man who lived largely for personal pleasure, he was also a very driven and complex one, a man whose fame on the stage did not come easily and who faced a series of horrific hurdles in his private life.

Porter risked his grandfather's ire--and the family fortune he controlled--by settling on a career in music, and while he earned early fame at Yale through his compositions, his first Broadway venture, See America First, was a humiliating fiasco. Homosexual in an era when it was flatly unacceptable, he would marry to retain respectability and forge a remarkable emotional (if completely platonic) relationship with wife Linda Lee Thomas--even while conducting a series of same-sex affairs that would prove frustratingly superficial. Near the height of his career, a horseback riding accident would leave him crippled and in physical agony for the rest of his life, and the pressures of pain and keeping up appearances would plunge him into fits of depression that seemed to border on the psychotic.Read more ›
3 Comments 67 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
3.0 out of 5 starsNight and Day this is the one Cole biography to read
By C. M Mills on August 18, 2004
Format: Audio Cassette Verified Purchase
Night and Day this is the best biography of the great Cole Porter (1891-1964). Porter was the scion of a wealthy family from Peru, Indiana. As a lad he excelled in music making and

graduated with a degree from Yale University. After a year of Law School at Harvard the travel loving Porter journeyed to Paris. He wed Linda Lee Thomas a wealthy woman several years his senior. Porter was gay and the marriage to Linda was sexless. The couple did love one another and Porter was never the same following Linda's death in 1954.

Porter wrote one fabulous musical after another for over 40 years. He lived in luxury with staff to attend his every need. He had a wide circle of friends from among the cultural and literary elite but was an aloof, fastidious, secretive man. Porter was a hard man to know and this biography is about as close as we will ever get to the inner core of the composer.

Porter was a genius in the witty line, the fetching tune and had the ability to make Broadway take notice during his fabulous career.

His life was placid but painful following his fall from a horse and the amputation of a leg. He was alcoholic and probably took durgs.

McBrien is an English professor who has written a well cratede book rich in anecdote. The book is well illustrated with photos from the Porter legacy. Several of Cole's famed lyrics are recorded to the delight of the reader.

With the new movie on Cole Porter this is a good supplement to the film. Well recommended.
Comment 41 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
4.0 out of 5 starsA Top biography
By Eric Leventhal on March 15, 1999
Format: Hardcover
I'd managed to drag myself through about a quarter of "Last Train to Memphis" when Peter Guralnick droped yet another superfluous detail about a Memphis DJ (Pete, you already told us twice that Bob Neal did the noon "hillbilly" show) and I just couldn't take it no more. Away went the King and out came the incomparable Cole.
Where Guralnick's bio is dense and chewy, William McBrien's treatment on the serious work of being Cole Porter is a melt-in-your-mouth delight. And not without sustenance. McBrien's business is to give analysis of Porter's lyrics through insights into the man's background, actions and relationships. And then comes a cornucopia of society gossip and backstage anecdotes. The juicy stories are not overdone, in fact I would have liked a few more as well as more pictures.
A nonchalant reference to a love letter to another man is McBrien's introduction of Cole Porter's homosexuality. I thought I missed an earlier more formal reference. From there it is treated no more nor less seriously than his marriage, wealth or manners--a major factor in his life that molded his work. Porter's crippling riding accident is handled in the same fashion-a clear report uncluttered by romance or irony.
"Cole Porter" shows that it is possible to write a critical biography that weighs less than a toddler and is a real pleasure to read.
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
5.0 out of 5 starsREAD IT!
By ALAIN ROBERT on January 10, 2003
Format: Paperback
WILLIAM McBRIEN has done it;he has given all the PORTER fans of this world the biography they were waiting for for thirty-four years.What this book gives us is an accurate account of the composer's life including his well known homosexuality, even if he married for respectability.PORTER's early years were quite different when compare with the other composers of his generation;he had a millionnaire grandfather and a rather aloof father with whom he didn't really communicate.He led a rather easy going life until he finally decided at the age of 37 to let his talent bloom on BROADWAY.There is considerable irony to the fact that from his riding accident in 1937,that man who had everything suffered a great deal until his death in 1964.You end up knowing what was this thing called love.
Comment 21 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

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book. Inspiring For an aspiring songwriter

Great book. Inspiring
For an aspiring songwriter. Irv B..

Published 5 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Outstanding.

Published 9 months ago by Laura Skylark
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Once again, this was for my wife, who is enchanted by Porter's music. Cheers, Mel Grieveson

Published 10 months ago by python26
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

The book was more a catalog of his works. You never really get to know Porter.

Published 13 months ago by Angela
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Love Cole Porter! His bio is superb and very interesting!

Published 13 months ago by Joe V.
5.0 out of 5 starsAnything Went!

William McBrien's 2000 COLE PORTER: A BIOGRAPHY chronicles the tunesmith's life and times in theatre. When thinking about it, his endgame was better than his beginning. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Steven J. Torrey
4.0 out of 5 starsCole Porter

Interesting book

Published 14 months ago by Mary D. Lemke
4.0 out of 5 starsThe book is an excellent and detailed account of Cole Porter's life

The book is an excellent and detailed account of Cole Porter's life. I was amazed at his prolific talent, and with the honest way that William O'Brian opened the door on Porter's... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 starsWhere's the Music?

Ebooks, ie, digital communication, should include music, not just snippets of lyrics.

Published 20 months ago by bitsybowman
5.0 out of 5 starsFantastic read!

Now I know who put the "style" in lifestyle!!! Fantastic read!

Published 20 months ago by Diane Condon

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Cole Porter
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: Cole Porter
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: metronome for piano