In the LA Times, Martin Rubin reviews ‘The Letters of Noel Coward,’ edited by Barry Day:
The Master’s voice
By Martin Rubin
Special to The Times – Dec. 1, 2007
The portrait on the cover of “The Letters of Noel Coward” complements perfectly this fascinating and revealing new collection. The photograph by Cecil Beaton shows the “Master,” as the actor, playwright and composer was known in his circle, bolt upright in a rocker, cigarette holder at a jaunty angle. It captures Coward’s public image and is the ideal companion to the dry, brittle, utterly distinctive voice that emerges from these letters. A Yeats’ biographer’s famous dialectic on the poet as the man and the mask applies to many 20th century literary lions but to none better than Coward, whose persona became as readily identifiable in his offstage pronouncements as in his plays. . . .
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-book1dec01,0,4726663.story?coll=la-books-headlines