Serge Diaghilev: His Life and His Legend – An Intimate Biography

xvi, 554pp, with monochrome portrait plate frontispiece plus several further black and white plate illustrations. Red cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on spine. 8vo. Boards rubbed and rounded at corners and spine ends, small indentation on front panel. Top text block edge dust stained and all edges a little spotted. Internally some faint and occasional spotting on first and last few leaves, and some mild signs of fingering else neat and clean and bright. In its original worn and delaminating dust jackets, lightly bumped at edges and lightly rubbed on corners, spine sunned. An engaging and detailed biography of Diaghilev – Art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russe , giving colour to the history of Russian Ballet. Diaghilev (1872-1929) was, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, condemned by the new Russian Soviet Regime as an especially insidious example of bourgeois decadence, and he was written out of the accepted history of Russian performance arts for more than 70 years. Diaghilev’s life and Ballets Russes were eternally entwined. His most famous lover, Vaslav Nijinsky, commented bitterly after their break up, inspiring mention in W H Auden’s poem, September 1939.