Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words

Lyricist Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) gets the due long afforded to his brother George in this meticulous account. Music historian Owen (Go Slow) recaps Gershwin’s upbringing in turn of the 20th-century New York City, where he read voraciously and paid close attention to street slang, fueling his love for language. After a slow start as a lyricist in his early 20s, he began collaborating with his composer brother, adding lyrics to George’s jazzy tunes in 1924’s Lady, Be Good. The brothers later garnered praise for such Broadway and TV productions as Porgy and Bess and Shall We Dance? George’s early death in 1937 devastated Gershwin and diverted him from songwriting as he dealt with an “endless minutiae of contracts and royalties,” before having a creative revival with 1940’s Lady in the Dark. Owens provides a solid if occasionally dry recounting of Gershwin’s career, though readers will be most captivated by the glimpses of a sensitive, complex artist that peek through the cracks. Especially memorable are the depictions of Gershwin as a “floating soul” in his early 20s who “struggled to find his own voice” as “endless melodies... flowed from George’s fingertips,” and as an artist who found his voice again after the “inertia” that set in following his brother’s death. It’s a fitting tribute to a vital influence on 20th-century American music. (Nov.)