The Gay & Lesbian Review

DITOR Nigel Simeone has se-

lected some 650 letters for this

collection of Leonard Bernstein’s

correspondence over a span of

six decades of the 20th century. The first

letter is from 1932, written by a fourteen-

year-old Bernstein to his piano teacher,

Helen Coates. The last is from 1990: a let-

ter to conductor Georg Solti.

Needless to say, Leonard Bernstein’s correspondents in-

clude a “who’s who” of 20th-century musical, literary, political,

intellectual, and newsworthy figures: composers Aaron Cop-

land, Samuel Barber, Marc Blitzstein; conductors Dimitri

Mitropoulos, Serge Koussevitzky, Bruno Walter; actors Judy

Holliday, Farley Granger (with whom he purportedly had an

affair), Bette Davis; writers Thornton Wilder, James M. Cain,

Martha Gellhorn (one of Hemingway’s for-

mer wives). In addition, there are the mu-

sical collaborators: Adolph Green and

Betty Comden from

On The Town

; Arthur

Laurents and Stephen Sondheim from

West

Side Story

; and choreographer Jerome

Robbins, with whom he worked on

Fancy

Free

West Side Story

, and

The Dybbuk

Among the entertainers with whom he corresponded were

singers Lena Horne and Frank Sinatra and jazz legends Miles

Davis and Louis Armstrong.

From these letters, Bernstein emerges as a highly intelli-

gent, emotional, impossibly busy, incredibly gifted individual.

His musical interests ranged from sacred classical to Broadway

lite, while his professional life divided itself more-or-less

equally between conducting and composition. Bernstein him-

self was acutely aware of his scattered interests and sometimes

wondered whether he’d sacrificed a “great” career as a classi-

cal composer in pursuit of a public life as a conductor, teacher,

and lecturer. Offsetting that concern was an authentic lust for

life that led him to grab for everything within reach, musically

and otherwise. His personal life included a loving marriage to

a woman, children, extra-marital affairs with men, and a long-

term relationship with a man.

Bernstein’s struggle with his sexuality is a theme that runs

through many of the letters. He was attracted to men but wanted

a traditional family with a wife and children. After an on-again,

off-again engagement, he finally decided to marry Felicia Mon-

tealegre, a Chilean actress and musician. She adored him but

also knew of his sexual proclivities. She wrote to him (1951-

1952): “you are homosexual and may never change. ... I am

willing to accept you as you are ... our marriage is not based on

passion but on tenderness and mutual respect.” Surprisingly

enough, this understanding actually worked. The couple stayed

together for decades, and they even had a few children along

the way. Bernstein’s conducting schedule was such that he’d

have to be marked down as a “mostly absent” father. He did his

best to stay in touch with the family through copious newsy let-

Lenny’s Letters on Display

Further complicating all the relationships is the implication

that both Tom and Danny may have been abused by their fa-

thers when they were young. This presents yet another hurdle

for them to confront as they wrestle with their feelings for one

another.

Bitter Eden

were merely the story of a reluctant gay man

finally acknowledging his sexuality, that might make for a

fine, if otherwise unremarkable, novel. What makes the novel

so extraordinary is the simplicity with which its meaning un-

folds. Issues of gender identity, sexuality, and societal repres-

sion all arise organically from the flow of events. Only after

Tom is asked to play the role of a woman in the camp play

(Lady Macbeth, no less!) does he allow himself to truly ac-

knowledge what he feels toward Danny. As he does so, the

issue of masculine versus feminine roles becomes even more

clouded for both. Thus, ironically, it is only within the context

of a POW camp (the “Bitter Eden” of the title), and by virtue

of playing a woman’s role in a play, that Tom is able to ac-

knowledge his feelings for another man. Tragically and ironi-

cally, the society outside the camp will not be nearly as

tolerant, nor allow them or their relationship a place in which

to flower.

For the details of life as a POW in World War II alone,

Bit-

ter Eden

is an important novel. But it is much more than that.

Its depiction of the growing love between Tom and Danny is

the frankest, most surprising treatment of love between two men

during wartime that I have ever encountered. It is a novel of

thrilling artistry, astonishing harshness, and great beauty.

RENE

AVORS

The Leonard Bernstein Letters

Edited by Nigel Simeone

Yale. 606 pages, $38.

Irene Javors, author of

Culture Notes: Essays on Sane Living

(2010),

is on the faculty of the Mental Health Counseling Program of Yeshiva

University in New York City.

March–April 2014

Photo by Allan Warren