Design for Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
by Margot Peters
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Book Summary Information
Author: Margot PetersEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2003-10-14
ISBN: 0375411178
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of Design for Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
Book Review: A good but not great biography
Summary: 4 Stars
This book probably deserves three-and-a-half stars, but I'll round it up to four.
Margot Peters clearly did a lot of research for this book, and it shows. If you're interested in learning about the Lunts, this book is more than adequate. But if Jared Brown's "The Fabulous Lunts" were in print, that would be my first recommendation for a biography of the couple.
That having been said, this book is arguably superior in some respects. If you want to learn about the Lunts' private lives, Peters provides far more information than does Brown (even if some of her surmises about the couple's sex life, or lack thereof, are a bit of a stretch). In comparison with "The Fabulous Lunts," here we learn a great deal more about Lunt's family; Ten Chimneys, their estate in Wisconsin; and many of their friendships. (The downside is that some of this is not very interesting.) On the other hand, Brown is generally more thorough in discussing their professional lives, though Peters is more thorough on a few productions (including "The Taming of the Shrew" and Coward's "Design for Living").
To Peters's credit, there are relatively few factual errors (as far as I can tell), and there are extensive endnotes. Unfortunately, even with all the endnotes, there are still some things that didn't get them but should have, and some of the endnotes that are included are more confusing than informative.
Indeed, one of the problems with this book is that Peters's writing is sometimes maddeningly convoluted, occasionally descending into incoherence. This is where Brown scores over Peters most of all: His writing is simple, straightforward, and clear, making "The Fabulous Lunts" a better read than "Design for Living."
Still, for the most part this is a good book, and I can recommend it to those who want to learn about the Lunts.
EDIT: Since I wrote the above, "The Fabulous Lunts" has come back into print.
Summary of Design for Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
From the much-admired biographer of Charlotte Brontë, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and the Barrymores (?Margot Peters is surely now . . . our foremost historian of stage make-believe??Leon Edel), a new biography of the most famous English-speaking acting team of the twentieth century.Individually, they were recognized as extraordinary actors, each one a star celebrated, imitated, sought after. Together, they were legend. The Lunts. A name to conjure with. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne worked together so imaginatively, so seamlessly onstage that they seemed to fuse into one person. Offstage, they brawled so famously and raucously over every detail of every performance that they inspired the musical Kiss Me, Kate. At home on Broadway, in London?s West End, touring the United States and Great Britain, and even playing ?the foxhole circuit? of World War II, the Lunts stunned, moved, and mystified audiences for more than four decades. They were considered to be a rarefied taste, but when they toured Texas in the 1930s, the audience threw cowboy hats onto the stage.
Their private life was equally fascinating, as unusual as the one they led in public. Friends like the critic Alexander Woollcott (whom Edna Ferber once described as ?the little New Jersey Nero who thinks his pinafore is a toga?), Noël Coward, Laurette Taylor, and Sidney Greenstreet received lifelong loyalty and hospitality. Ten Chimneys, their country home in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, ?is to performers what the Vatican is to Catholics,? Carol Channing once said. ?The Lunts are where we all spring from.?
In this new biography, Margot Peters catches the magic of Lunt and Fontanne?their period, their work, their intimacy and its contradictions?with candor, delicacy, intelligence, and wit. She writes about their personal and creative choices as deftly as she captures their world, from their meeting (backstage, naturally)?when Fontanne was a young actress in the first flush of stardom and Lunt a lanky midwesterner who came in the stage door, bowed to her elaborately, lost his balance, and fell down the stairs?and the early days when an unknown and very hungry Noël Coward lived in a swank hotel in a room the size of a closet and cadged meals at their table to the telegram the famous couple once sent to a movie mogul, turning down a studio contract worth a fortune (?We can be bought, my dear Mr. Laemmle, but we can?t be bored?).
We follow the Lunts through triumphs in plays such as The Guardsman, The Taming of the Shrew, and Design for Living; through friendships and feuds; through the intricate way they worked with such playwrights and directors as S. N. Behrman, Robert Sherwood, Giraudoux, Dürrenmatt, Peter Brook, and with each other.
Margot Peters captures the gallantry of two remarkably gifted people who lived for their art and for each other. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were once described as an ?amazing duet of intelligence and gaiety.? Margot Peters re-creates the fun and the fireworks.
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