The pleasure of their company

by Hyman Howard Taubman

These recollections "of men and women whom I was fortunate enough to encounter and even know, and of events I reported" do not form a conventional autobiography. Rather, the author's more modest intention is simply to present not only the celebrated artists he came to know, but also some of the friends he made at The Times and in the U.S. Army during the Second World War. Readers will share vignettes of Toscanini, Casals, and Shostakovich; Alfred Lunt, Richard Burton, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini; Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Marian Anderson, and dozens of other luminaries of the musical and theatrical worlds. There is an account of Vladimir Horowitz attending a Cardinals-Mets game that adds a wholly unexpected dimension to the great pianist's legendary eccentricities! . Supplemented by photographs from the New York Times archives and the author's own collection, this affectionate memoir will inform and delight any reader with an interest in music and theater in our time.