Reading Lyrics

A huge gathering of the finest American and British song lyrics from 1910 to 1975. Robert Kimball and Robert Gottlieb have collaborated to choose the 800 or more most distinguished lyrics of the century, from early P.G. Wodehouse and the Irving Berlin of Alexander's Ragtime Band through the greats of Broadway and Hollywood - Gershwin, Hart, Porter, Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein, Yip Harbourg, Dorothy Fields, Frank Loesser, Noel Coward - to the early triumphs of Stephen Sondheim. Plus many writers who are barely remembered today. Over 100 lyricists in all, each one introduced with a brief biography and commentary, and presented chronologically, so that this big volume not only presents the core of an entire literature that we love, but will serve as a reference book and a history of the lyric and the lyricist in the 20th century.