The Wordsmiths - Hardcover

About the Author:
Stephen Citron has long been a force in the American musical theater. Composer, lyricist, lecturer, and writer, he is the author of Songwriting, the standard reference on the subject; The Musical From Inside Out; and, most recently, Noel and Cole, the acclaimed dual biography of Noel Coward and Cole Porter.

"Highly entertaining and admirably comprehensive."--The Chicago Tribue

"Told with loving detail by that musical sleuth Stephen Citron, this is a great book about two great men. With forensic precision he has unearthed everything I wanted to know about my two heroes, and by doing so, has reminded the world of the magical legacy they left for all of us to relish."--Don Black, lyricist of Sunset Boulevard and Song and Dance

"Stephen Criton has the uncanny gift of being able to dissect the anatomy of a song without disturbing its soul."--Don Black, lyricist of Sunset Boulevard and Song and Dance

"Before I turn out the light, I thought, I'll read a chapter. At three A.M. the light was still on. Stephen Citron writes not just for lyricists interested in the craft of two boundless imaginations. His book time-travels the reader into the world and words of two masters creating for a musical theater whose moment will not be seen again."--Dory Previn, Academy Award-nominated lyricist

"A brilliant, perceptive, revealing analysis of the work and lives of two enduring poets of the theater, whose lyrics are literate and whose musical books are literature of the stage." --Jerome Lawrence, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and librettist (Inherit the Wind) and Mame)

''Citron again is prescient and precise, making his detail-oriented, well- researched book captivating not only for general readers but budding lyricists.'' --The Hour, December 15th