Moondog by Robert Scotto

Moondog by Robert Scotto

The basis of a full-length documentary.

Moondog is one of America's great originals.--Alan Rich, New York Magazine

Here is a revised edition of a book that celebrates one of the most improbable lives of the twentieth century: a blind and homeless man who became the most famous eccentric in New York and who, with enormous diligence, rose to prominence both in major label pop music recordings in addition to symphonic concerts of his compositions.

This edition of Moondog will soon be seen a as a feature documentary titled The Viking of 6th Avenue directed by Holly Elson and produced by Hard Working Movies.

Born Louis Thomas Hardin in 1916, Moondog first made an impression in the late 1940s when he became a mascot of The New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. His unique, melodic compositions were released on the Prestige jazz label. In the late 1960s the Viking-garbed Moondog was a pop music sensation on Columbia Records.

Moondog's compositional style influenced his former roommate Philip Glass, whose preface appears in the book. Moondog's work transcends labels and redefines the distinction between popular and high culture.

A wide-ranging compilation of Moondog recordings, which includes four Madrigals played by Philip Glass, Steven Reich, Jon Gibson, and Moondog himself, are offered as free downloads for every purchaser of this biography.

Scotto, Robert: - American poet and scholar, Robert Scotto was a professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY, until his retirement. His previous publications include A Critical Edition of Catch-22, a book on the contemporary American novel and essays on Walter Pater, James Joyce and other major and minor nineteenth and twentieth-century writers. The first edition of his biography, Moondog, won the 2008 ARSC Award for Best Research in Recorded Classical Music and the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2008 bronze medal for biography. The second edition, published in 2016, is the basis for a documentary, released in 2018, featuring him as a participant. He has also written the entry for Moondog in the second edition of The Grove Dictionary of American Music. Although he has published poems occasionally in small journals throughout his life, his 2010 book, Journey Through India and Nepal, was his first collection.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781934170403
ISBN 10	1934170402
Title	Moondog
Author	Robert Scotto
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Process Media
Year published	2013-07-22
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable