Cole Porter

This biography looks closely at the American songwriter Cole Porter and the private life behind his public fame. It takes up his relationships with men, which ran alongside a marriage of more than twenty years to Linda Lee Thomas. The book also traces his rise on Broadway and in Hollywood, with the hit shows Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate at its center.

Written by William McBrien, the book follows Porter as a composer and lyricist whose songs became part of the American stage and film repertoire. Readers interested in the musical theater of the mid-twentieth century, or in how a famous artist kept his personal life partly hidden, will find much here.