In this book Robert Crunden puts the "jazz" back in the Jazz Age. Jazz was America's greatest contribution to the Modernist movement, yet it is much overlooked. When we hear the term "Jazz Age," we conjure the ghosts of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Eliot, not Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters, George Gershwin, and Duke Ellington. In order to correct this imbalance, Crunden re-introduces us to these musical luminaries who gave the era its name as he traces the early history of jazz from New Orleans to Chicago to New York. While Crunden emphasizes music over literature and the visual arts, he never fails to map the complex cross-currents of literature that passed between jazz musicians and their "Lost Generation" peers, a veritable pageant of the glittering personalities of the day-James Joyce, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, John Dos Passos, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein.

About the Author
Robert Crunden was Professor of American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. His previous books include Ministers of Reform and American Salons. He died in March 1999.


Book Information
ISBN 9780465014859
Author Robert Crunden
Format Paperback
Page Count 496
Imprint Basic Books
Publisher Basic Books
Weight(grams) 640g
Dimensions(mm) 153mm * 227mm * 28mm