Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life

This first English-language biography of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) in two decades paints a strikingly new picture of one of the 20th century's most controversial cultural icons. Drawing on letters, diaries and much unpublished material, Parker offers a rich and enthralling account of Brecht's life [...]
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This first English-language biography of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) in two decades paints a strikingly new picture of one of the 20th century's most controversial cultural icons. Drawing on letters, diaries and much unpublished material, Parker offers a rich and enthralling account of Brecht's life and work, viewed through the prism of the artist. A fresh reading of Brecht's formative years in Augsburg, culminating in a deep personal crisis during the First World War, reveals how Brecht's singular sensibility and ambition made him the boldest theatrical innovator of the age. Parker charts Brecht's complex evolution into a political artist during the Weimar Republic as he contended with the rise of Nazism and with official Communism. The emigre Brecht's conflicts with his own political side in a reactionary Moscow under Stalin - Brecht was branded a Trotskyist - left their imprint upon the first Life of Galileo. Parker sheds fresh light upon the stateless survivor's frustrating years of US exile, and upon the obstacles he encountered upon his return to Europe.Finally, the biography shows how Brecht emerged from bitter struggles with the cultural bureaucracy in East Berlin to achieve his extraordinary, transformative impact upon world theatre and poetry, securing his legacy with dazzling productions of the Berliner Ensemble in Paris and London. Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life is a powerful portrait of a great, contradictory personality, whose artistry left its lasting imprint on modern culture.