"Travels With Cole Porter" 1991 HOWARD, Jean
$75
HOWARD, Jean
[216] pp.
Abrams
1991
12 1/4" x 9 1/2"
Includes letters and archival photographs, as well as the author's photographs of her travels with Cole and Linda Porter.
"More than a quarter century after his death in 1964, Cole Porter remains a luminous personality in the American musical theater, a man whose life and achievements have proved endlessly fascinating. Although sophisticated and glamourous, Porter was not untouched by pain and sorrow: in 1937 he suffered a serious riding accident, from which he would never fully recover. Notoriously self-disciplined, he continued to work and to maintain an active life, despite onslaughts of pain and depression. He was enthralled by travel and sight-seeing, a love he attributed to his wife, Linda, from whom, he gratefully acknowledged, he learned to "see". With this book, readers are treated to a uniquely different view of Cole Porter as they accompany Jean Howard on two "Grand Tours" she made with Porter and others, in 1955 and 1956, which would prove to be his last extended journeys. Fortunately, Howard was there to record them. The author begins by relating her first meeting with Cole and Linda Porter in 1931 and, in letters and archival photographs, carries their friendship through to late 1954, when one day over lunch she suggested a trip to cheer the composer, who remained despondent over his wife's death the year before. Her fateful suggestion led to a whirlwind excursion that began in Switzerland and progressed through Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. The next year the intrepid travelers added Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Israel to their itinerary. Both trips ended in grand style with a two-week cruise among the Greek Islands aboard Stavros Niarchos's yacht, the Eros II. In almost 300 duotone photographs, and with the aid of diary entries (including Porter's own travel diary for portions of the trips), Howard recounts their adventures. The legendary sights, the parties, and the illustrious circle in which they journeyed evoke images of glamour and beauty as well as nostalgia for a style of travel, and a way of life, that no longer exist. This book is much more than a travelogue, however; it is a very personal chronicle of an enduring friendship. Along with her wonderful photographs -- all reproduced in duotone and many of them never before published -- Howard provides warm, often funny remembrances of her dear friend. George Eells, another close friend of Porter's and the author of the first full-length biography on him, contributes an introduction to set the stage for Howard's own insights into the personality of this complex, brilliant man."