The life of composer Richard Rodgers encapsulates the very essence of New York and London high society during the first half of the twentieth century. His twenty-five year collaboration with Lorenz Hart gave rise to songs that will live forever, including- 'Manhattan', 'The Lady is a Tramp', 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered', 'Blue Moon'. After Hart's death, he collaborated with Oscar Hammerstein II and together they wrote Oklahoma, South Pacific, Carousel, The King And I and The Sound Of Music, among many other beloved musicals. In her outstanding biography Secrest sets the scenes for five decades of American musical history, with its parades of cock-eyed optimists and heroines with hearts of gold. It is also the intriguing portrait of a complex man- personable, sunny, and seductive. Though riddled with insecurities, he was a composer unequalled, not just for longevity but output - thirty-nine musicals, more than a thousand songs, rediscovered and adored by successive generations around the world.Meryle Secrest was born and educated in Bath. She has written biographies of Romaine Brooks, Bernard Berenson, Kenneth Clark, Salvador Dali, Frank Lloyd Wright, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim (available from Bloomsbury). Secrest lives in Maryland, USA.