ldquo;This is the best autobiography Irsquo;ve read by a prominent American in I donrsquo;t know how many years. It is endlessly absorbing and I believe this is because it concerns a man who is looking to find a coherent philosophy that will be tough enough to contain all that is ugly in his person and his experience; yet shall prove sufficiently compassionate to give honest judgment on himself and others. Somehow; the author brings this off. Elia Kazan: A Life has that candor of confession which is possible only when the deepest wounds have healed and honesty can achieve what honesty so rarely arrives atmdash;a rich and hearty flavor. By such means; a famous director has written a book that offers the kind of human wealth we find in a major novel.rdquo; mdash;Norman Mailer In this amazing autobiography; Kazan at seventy-eight brings to the undiluted telling of his storymdash;and revelation of himselfmdash;all the passion; vitality; and truth; the almost outrageous honesty; that have made him so formidable a stage director (A Streetcar Named Desire; Death of a Salesman; All My Sons; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Tea and Sympathy); film director (On the Waterfront; East of Eden; Gentlemanrsquo;s Agreement; Splendor in the Grass; Baby Doll; The Last Tycoon; A Face in the Crowd); and novelist (the number-one best-seller The Arrangement.)Kazan gives us his sense of himself as an outsider (a Greek rug merchantrsquo;s son born in Turkey; an immigrantrsquo;s son raised in New York and educated at Williams College). He takes us into the almost accidental sojourn at the Yale Drama School that triggered his commitment to theatre; and his edgy; exciting apprenticeship with the new and astonishing Group Theatre; as stagehand and stage managermdash;and as actor (Waiting for Lefty; Golden Boy) . . . his first nervous and then successful attempts at directing for theatre and movies (The Skin of Our Teeth; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) . . . his return to New York to co-found the Actors Studio (and his long and ambivalent relationship with Lee Strasberg) . . . his emergence as premier director on both coasts.With his directorrsquo;s eye for the telling scene; Kazan shares the joys and complications of production; his unique insights on acting; directing; and producing. He makes us feel the close presence of the actors; producers; and writers hersquo;s worked withmdash;James Dean; Marlon Brando; Tennessee Williams; Vivien Leigh; Tallulah Bankhead; Sam Spiegel; Darryl Zanuck; Harold Clurman; Arthur Miller; Budd Schulberg; James Baldwin; Clifford Odets; and John Steinbeck among them. He gives us a frank and affectionate portrait of Marilyn Monroe. He talks with startling candor about himself as husband andmdash;in the years where he obsessively sought adventure outside marriagemdash;as lover. For the first time; he discusses his Communist Party years and his wrenching decision in 1952 to be a cooperative witness before HUAC. He writes about his birth as a writer.The pace and organic drama of his narrative; his grasp of the life and politics of Broadway and Hollywood; the keenness with which he observes the men and women and worlds around him; and; above all; the honest with which he pursues and captures his own essence; make this one of the most fascinating autobiographies of our time.
#1896689 in eBooks 2010-10-27 2013-08-08File Name: B005R9ECDU
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Original MasteryBy J. EwingHilary Austen has never been a person to shrink from taking on learning challenges of a high order. Ive had the good fortune to be a colleague and friend of hers for about twenty five years. So for the purposes of full disclosure. Im happily biased. Just so you know.Artistry Unleashed has taken a career of industrious effort to be expressed. Over a long time. and with real dedication. Hillary has worked out a practical access to the discipline of evolving the expression of our talents as well as the disruptive practices of setting aside what we think we know to enable our originality.The tough assignment she took on was to work at the fundamentals of the discipline rather than finding tools and tips and tricks. Hilary has laid out a unique map of the territory and some suggested pathways to explore. For my tastes. she has hit the perfect balance between concept and method. Thank heavens she didnt burden us with yet another set of the seven precepts or nine rules. or umpteen whatevers of how-to.In a business writing world of supposed fast answers. it is daring to remind us that the truly masterful and creative human is a product of much sustained. committed effort. No short cuts. Of course others have said this. But others Ive encountered have not laid out the map of the transformational learning dynamic as usefully as has Hilary.IMHO. if you want to raise your game or pass your skills to another. you will likely find Hilarys work to be unique and uniquely useful. I respectfully suggest buying a handful of these and passing them out to those with whom you have a chance to co-create a dent the universe.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Spine TinglingBy Emily MaI just read the first chapter of Artistry Unleashed and I have a confession to make : it is sending tingles up my spine. I teach design thinking at a business school. I have been seeking a well-written piece with frameworks and examples on the importance of cultivating a sense of craftsmanship and soul regardless of what one does. This is it. In terms of Hilary Austens knowledge framework. much of what my students seem to expect are pre-baked conceptual tools. standalone from experiential and directional knowledge. As Ms. Austen writes. the big hairy problems we face in this generation are enigmatic. Many of those pre-baked tools available today will not suffice in solving enigmatic problems. I hope. in sharing this book with others. I can help them realize their own capacity to create the tools and the knowledge system they need on their own. Hilary Austen also grounds her knowledge framework in concrete stories about individuals. which seems rare for cerebral business books. This book is one part short story. one part academic analysis. and one part business strategy. It is such a joy to read. Artistry Unleashed will sit next to Shop Class as Soul Craft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work (Matthew Crawford) on my top shelf. above the many business strategy books Ive been recommended.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Beyond QuantitativeBy DLBI work and play in two worlds that highly prize quantitative analysis. While it is a necessary component in both disciplines. my experience has been that when relying primarily on the quantitative I am left with the feeling that I have somehow missed a primary ingredient within the process. In Artistry Unleashed Hilary Austen identifies the qualitative aspects of experience and then creates a framework that helps us navigate this more nebulous but ultimately more rewarding side of life. I thoroughly enjoyed and learned much from this wonderful book.
