Leonore gershwin biography book

Who killed George Gershwin? The composer died of a brain tumor in 1937 at the age of 38, but Joan Peyser, in this new biography, The Memory of All That: The life of George Gershwin, nevertheless fingers a few suspects, including his psychoanalyst, his sister-in-law, and those master criminals the critics.

Peyser, whose gossipy biography of Leonard Bernstein appeared in 1987, believes Gershwin’s tumor was, to some extent, brought on by stress resulting from the decline of his Broadway career and from assorted predators.

Leonore gershwin biography book

Gershwin’s outstandingly warped psychiatrist, Dr. Gregory Zilboorg, bullied him, belittled him, and declared his severe headaches neurotic, as did Gershwin’s Freud-fed friends. Leonore Gershwin, the greedy, imperious wife of George’s mild-mannered brother and lyricist, Ira, badgered him and, when he was clearly ill and increasingly clumsy, more or less threw him out of the house.

When he fell down while leavin