The Nantucket Diary of Ned Rorem, 1973-1985

Ned Rorem

In this continuing self-portrait of a major American composer, which began in 1951 with The Paris diray, Ned Rorem blends his familiar preoccupations: literature and artists, illness and death, dinners and desserts, alcoholism and melancholia, homosexuality and insomnia, gossip and "names", atheism and Quakerism. His Nantucket Diary, covering the years 1973 through 1985, reveals a more mature and graceful Ned Rorem, a man who has experienced great loss and serious illness yet has lost none of his acute observational skills and keenly opinionated nature. His wit remains bracing and his candor refreshing as he offers sharp critiques on the state of modern classical music and its creators.