Lincoln Edward Kirstein (May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996) was an American writer,

impresario An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer. Hist ...

, art connoisseur,

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

, and cultural figure in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, noted especially as co-founder of the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

. He developed and sustained the company with his organizing ability and fundraising for more than four decades, serving as the company's general director from 1946 to 1989. According to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

,'' he was "an expert in many fields", organizing art exhibits and lecture tours in the same years.

Early life

Kirstein was born in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

, to Jewish parents, the son of Rose Stein and

Louis E. Kirstein Louis Edward Kirstein (June 9, 1867 – December 10, 1942) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the chairman of Filene's, a Boston-based department store. He was "one of the foremost merchants and commercial leaders in New Englan ...

(1867–1942). His brother was

George Kirstein George Kirstein (December 10, 1909 – April 3, 1986) was publisher and principal owner of The Nation magazine from 1955 to 1965. Background George G. Kirstein was born on December 10, 1909, Boston. He attended the Berkshire School, a private bo ...

, his sister was Mina Kirstein and his paternal grandparents were Jeanette (née Leiter) and Edward Kirstein, a successful Rochester clothing manufacturer who ran E. Kirstein and Sons, Company. He grew up in a wealthy, Jewish, Bostonian family and attended the private

Berkshire School Berkshire School is a private, co-ed boarding school for grades 9 through 12 located in Sheffield, Massachusetts, USA. History 1907–1943: Founding and early years Berkshire School (for boys) was established in 1907 at the foot of Mount Ever ...

, along with

George Platt Lynes George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) was an American fashion photography, fashion and advertising, commercial photographer who worked in the 1930s and 1940s. He produced photographs featuring many gay artists and writers from ...

, graduating in 1926. He then attended

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, the alma mater of his father, vice-president of

Filene's Department Store Filene's Department Store was a department store building at 426 Washington Street in Downtown Crossing, Boston, Massachusetts. It was the flagship store of the Filene's department store chain. The building has been renovated and now serves as ...

, graduating in 1930. His maternal grandfather was Nathan Stein, a senior executive at the Stein-Bloch & Co., in Rochester.

Career

Early career

In 1927, while an undergraduate at Harvard, Kirstein was frustrated that the literary magazine ''

The Harvard Advocate ''The Harvard Advocate'', the art and literary magazine of Harvard College, is the oldest continuously published college art and literary magazine in the United States. The magazine (published then in newspaper format) was founded by Charles S. ...

'' would not invite him to join its editorial board despite his having published several well-regarded pieces in the magazine. With friend

Varian Fry Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. ...

(who met his wife Eileen through Lincoln's sister Mina), he convinced his father to finance the ''

Hound & Horn ''Hound & Horn'', originally subtitled "a Harvard Miscellany", was a literary quarterly founded by Harvard undergrads Lincoln Kirstein and Varian Fry in . At the time, the college's literary magazine ''The Harvard Advocate'' did not accept their w ...

,'' a new literary quarterly. After graduation, he moved to New York in 1930, taking the quarterly with him. The publication gained prominence in the artistic world and ran until 1934 when Kirstein decided to focus his energy and resources on the career of

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

and the development of the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...

His interest in ballet and Balanchine started when he saw Balanchine's ''Apollo'' performed by the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...

. Kirstein became determined to bring Balanchine to the United States. In October 1933, together with

Edward Warburg Edward Mortimer Morris Warburg (June 5, 1908 – September 1992) was an American philanthropist and patron of the arts from New York City. He taught Modern Art at Bryn Mawr College and he was vice director for public affairs of the Metropolitan M ...

, a classmate from Harvard, and Vladimir Dimitriew, Balanchine's manager, they started the

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. In 1934, the studio moved to the fourth floor of a building at Madison Avenue and 59th Street in New York City. Warburg's father,

Felix M. Warburg Felix Moritz Warburg (January 14, 1871October 20, 1937) was a German-born American banker. He was a member of the Warburg banking family of Hamburg, Germany. Early life Warburg was born in Hamburg, Germany, on January 14, 1871. He was a grandso ...

, invited the group of students from the evening class to perform at a private party. The ballet they performed was ''Serenade'', the first major ballet choreographed by Balanchine in the United States. Just months later, Kirstein and Warburg founded, together with Balanchine and Dimitriew, the American Ballet, which later became the resident company of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

. According to Kirstein, this arrangement was unsatisfactory because the opera company failed to provide the ballet company with financial resources and artistic freedom.

World War II and Monuments Men

Kirstein's theatrical career was interrupted by the United States' entry into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He enlisted in 1943, and before going overseas, he started working on a project gathering and documenting soldier art. He eventually developed this as the exhibit and book '' Artists Under Fire''. In the spring of 1944, Kirstein traveled to London for the U.S. Arts and Monuments Commission, and after a month, he was transferred to the unit in France that came to be known as the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) program. The section was devoted to rescuing and preserving European art.Monuments Men Foundation
Kuhn, Monuments Men> Kirstein, Pfc. Lincoln E.
In January 1945, Kirstein was promoted to private first class in Patton's Third Army, and his unit moved to Germany. Kirstein was involved with retrieving artworks around Munich and from the salt mines at

Altaussee Altaussee (Central Bavarian: ''Oid Aussee'') is a municipality and spa town in the district of Liezen in Styria, Austria. The small village is nestled on the shores of the Lake Altaussee, beneath the Loser Plateau. Occupying an area of 92 ...

. His article "The Quest for the Golden Lamb" about the quest was published in ''Town & Country'' in September 1945, the same month he was discharged from the army.

Ballet

In 1946, Balanchine and Kirstein founded the

Ballet Society Ballet Society is a non-profit educational institution founded in 1946 by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. At its founding, Balanchine was the Artistic Director and Kirstein served as the Secretary. The president of Ballet Society is Nanc ...

, which was renamed the New York City Ballet in 1948. In a letter that year, Kirstein stated, "The only justification I have is to enable Balanchine to do exactly what he wants to do in the way he wants to do it."Alastair Macaulay, "A Paragon of the Arts, as Both Man and Titan"
(review of Martin Duberman, ''The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein''), Books of the Times, ''New York Times'', 4 May 2007, accessed 5 January 2015 Kirstein served as the company's general director from 1946 until 1989. In a 1959 monograph titled ''What Ballet Is All About'' Kirstein wrote: "Our Western ballet is a clear if complex blending of human anatomy, solid geometry and acrobatics offered as a symbolic demonstration of manners—the morality of consideration for one human being moving in time with another." In 1976, poet

Vernon Scannell Vernon Scannell (23 January 1922 – 16 November 2007) was a British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and wrote novels about the sport. Personal life Vernon Scannell, whose birth name was John Vernon Bain, was born in ...

said that Kirstein "regarded dancers not as artists but as acrobats; their skills were, he maintained, entirely physical and he felt his involvement with the dance was a salutary escape from the cerebral and sedentary life into a world that was closer to that of the athlete than the artist." Kirstein's and Balanchine's collaboration lasted until the latter's death in 1983.

Literary output

Kirstein wrote a great deal over 60 years. His bibliography was eventually almost 600 works. He published volumes on the artists he championed. He also wrote about other subjects that interested him, including Hollywood stars, the cats in fairy tales, tap dancers, and Buddhist temples. Kirstein felt his involvement in writing, starting with ''Hound & Horn'', had helped him have many adventures in life.

Personal life

Beginning in 1919, Kirstein kept a diary, continuing with the practice until the late 1930s. In writing a 2007 biography of Kirstein, ''The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein,''

Martin Duberman Martin Bauml Duberman (born August 6, 1930) is an American historian, biographer, playwright, and gay rights activist. Duberman is Professor of History Emeritus at Lehman College, Herbert Lehman College in the Bronx, New York City. Early life Du ...

drew on these diaries, as well as Kirstein's numerous letters, to gain insight into Kirstein's personal life. Kirstein wrote about enjoying sex with various men, including Harvard undergraduates, sailors, rentboys, and casual encounters in the showers at the 63rd Street YMCA. He had longer affairs with dancer Pete Martinez and artist

Dan Maloney Daniel Charles "Snowshoes" Maloney (September 24, 1950 – November 19, 2018) was a professional ice hockey left winger in the National Hockey League (NHL) and NHL coach. Playing career Drafted 14th overall by the Chicago Black Hawks in the 1970 ...

. He had both platonic relationships and many that started as casual sex and developed into long-term friendships. Lincoln Kirstein House, 2

He also maintained relationships with women. In 1941, he married Fidelma Cadmus, a painter and the sister of the artist

Paul Cadmus Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 – December 12, 1999) was an American artist widely known for his egg tempera paintings of gritty social interactions in urban settings. He also produced many highly finished drawings of single nude male figures ...

. Kirstein and his wife enjoyed an amicable if sometimes stressful relationship until her death in 1991, but she withdrew from painting and then from life, suffering breakdowns that eventually were more serious than his. Some of his boyfriends lived with them in their East 19th Street house; "Fidelma was enormously fond of most of them." The New York art world considered Kirstein's

bisexuality Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

an "open secret", although he did not publicly acknowledge his sexual orientation until 1982. Kirstein's eclectic interests, ambition and keen interest in high culture, funded by independent means, drew a large circle of creative friends from many fields of the arts. These included

Glenway Wescott Glenway Wescott (April 11, 1901 – February 22, 1987) was an American poet, novelist and essayist. A figure of the American expatriate literary community in Paris during the 1920s, Wescott was openly gay.Eric Haralson, ''Henry James and Queer Mo ...

Jared French Jared French (February 4, 1905 – January 8, 1988) was an American painter who specialized in the medium of egg tempera. He was one of the artists attributed to the style of art known as magic realism along with contemporaries George Tooker ...

, Bernard Perlin,

Pavel Tchelitchev Pavel Fyodorovich Tchelitchew ( ; russian: Па́вел Фёдорович Чели́щев) ( – 31 July 1957) was a Russian-born surrealist painter, set designer and costume designer. Early life Tchelitchew was born to an aristocratic famil ...

Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter (May 15, 1890 – September 18, 1980) was an American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel ''Ship of Fools'' was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her sho ...

, Barbara Harrison,

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

Donald Windham Donald Windham (July 2, 1920 – May 31, 2010) was an American novelist and memoirist. He is perhaps best known for his close friendships with Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Windham moved with his then-boyfriend F ...

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theat ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

W.H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

George Tooker George Clair Tooker, Jr. (August 5, 1920 – March 27, 2011) was an American figurative painter. His works are associated with Magic realism, Social realism, Photorealism, and Surrealism. His subjects are depicted naturally as in a photograp ...

Margaret French Cresson Margaret French Cresson (1889–1973) was an American sculptor, and daughter of sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931). She studied under Abastenia St. Leger Eberle and George Demetrius, focusing her art on marble busts and portrait heads ...

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

, and

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenw ...

, among others. In his later years, Kirstein struggled with

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

– mania, depression, and paranoia. He destroyed the studio of friend Dan Maloney. He sometimes had to be constrained in a straitjacket for weeks at a psychiatric hospital. His illness did not generally affect his professional creativity until the end of his life. He also suffered two heart attacks in February 1975.

Legacy

English critic

Clement Crisp Clement Andrew Crisp OBE (21 September 1926 – 1 March 2022) was a British dance critic. He served as dance critic for the ''Financial Times'' from 1956 to 2020. Life and career Crisp was born in Romford, Essex, in 1926, although for many years ...

wrote: "He was one of those rare talents who touch the entire artistic life of their time. Ballet, film, literature, theatre, painting, sculpture, photography all occupied his attention." Kirstein helped organize a 1959 American tour for musicians and dancers from the Japanese

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial Family, and also the keeping of the Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century AD, up until the Second World War, it ...

. At that time, Japanese Imperial court music, ''

gagaku is a type of Japanese classical music that was historically used for imperial court music and dances. was developed as court music of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and its near-current form was established in the Heian period (794-1185) around t ...

,'' had only rarely been performed outside the Imperial Music Pavilion in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

at some of the great Japanese shrines. Kirstein commissioned and helped to fund the physical home of the New York City Ballet: the

New York State Theater The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet, modern and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally ...

building at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

, designed in 1964 by architects

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...

and

John Burgee __NOTOC__ John Burgee (born August 28, 1933) is an American architect noted for his contributions to Postmodern architecture. He was a partner of Philip Johnson from 1967 to 1991, creating together the partnership firm Johnson/Burgee Architects. ...

. Despite its conservative

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

exterior, the glittery red and gold interior recalls the imaginative and lavish backdrops of the

. He served as the general director of the ballet company from 1948 to 1989. Kirstein was among the public figures at the core of the effort to save

Olana Olana State Historic Site is a historic house museum and landscape in Greenport, New York, near the city of Hudson. The estate was home to Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape pa ...

, the home of

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

, before it was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1965 and subsequently became a New York State Historic Site. On March 26, 1984, President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

presented Kirstein with the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merito ...

for his contributions to the arts. Kirstein was also a serious collector. Soon after the opening at Lincoln Center of the

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

, he contributed a significant amount of historic dance materials to the

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

Dance Division. Before his death in 1996, Kirstein also donated his personal papers, artworks, and other materials related to the history of dance and his life in the arts to the division. Kirstein was also the primary patron of the artist

, Fidelma's brother, buying many of his paintings and subsidizing his living expenses. Cadmus had difficulty selling his work through galleries because of the erotically charged depictions of working class and middle class men, which provoked controversy.

Honors

, U.S. *

Handel Medallion The Handel Medallion is an American award presented by the City of New York. It is the city's highest award given to individuals for their contribution to the city's intellectual and cultural life. Establishment The award was first issued in 19 ...

, NYC, U.S. *

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

Notable Achievement Award, U.S. *

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...

, U.S., 1985. *

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

, Benjamin Franklin Medal, UK, 1981. *

National Society of Arts and Letters The National Society of Arts and Letters (known by its abbreviation NSAL) is an American non-profit group founded in 1944 as a women's organization to assist promising young artists through arts competitions, scholarships and other career opportuni ...

, National Gold Medal of Merit Award, U.S. * National Museum of Dance Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame inductee, 1987.

Theatrical credits

* ''The Saint of Bleecker Street'', riginal, Play, Drama, Play with music Production Supervisor. December 27, 1954 to April 2, 1955 * ''Misalliance'', evival, Play, ComedyNew York City Drama Company, Managing director. March 6, 1953 to June 27, 1953 * ''Billy the Kid'', riginal, Ballet Librettist. Choreography by

Eugene Loring Eugene Loring (August 2, 1911 – August 30, 1982) was an American dancer, choreographer, teacher, and administrator. Biography Eugene Loring was born as Le Roy Kerpestein, the son of a saloon-keeper, grew up on a small island in Wisconsin's M ...

, music by Aaron Copland, design by Jared French. Premiered May 24, 1938. * ''Filling Station'', riginal, Ballet, One Act Librettist. Choreography by Lew Christensen, music by Virgil Thomson, design by Paul Cadmus. Premiered January 6, 1938.

Published works

*1929 – ''A Marriage Message for Mary Frost & James Maybon from Lincoln Kirstein'', Paris, Boston privately published by Kirstein *1932 – ''Flesh Is Heir: An Historical Romance'', a novel, New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam *1934 – ''

Nijinsky Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; rus, Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, p=ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj; pl, Wacław Niżyński, ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreog ...

'', anonymous collaboration (ghostwriting) with Romola Nijinsky, with a foreword by

Paul Claudel Paul Claudel (; 6 August 1868 – 23 February 1955) was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism. Early lif ...

, London: Victor Gollancz/Toronto: Ryerson Press *1935 – ''Dance: A Short History of Classic Theatrical Dancing'', New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons *1938 – ''Photographs of America:

'', in: ''Walker Evans: American Photographs'', New York: Museum of Modern Art *1939 – ''Ballet Alphabet: A Primer for Laymen'', New York: Kamin Publishers *1943 – ''American Battle Painting: 1776–1918'', Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution/New York: Museum of Modern Art *1943 – ''The Latin-American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art'', New York: The Museum of Modern Art *1947 – ''The Drawings of

Pavel Tchelitchew Pavel Fyodorovich Tchelitchew ( ; russian: Па́вел Фёдорович Чели́щев) ( – 31 July 1957) was a Russian-born surrealist painter, set designer and costume designer. Early life Tchelitchew was born to an aristocratic famil ...

'', and his last book, published in 1994, was ''Tchelitchev'', a full-scale study that used a variant spelling of the artist's name. *1947 – "

Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...

: Documentary Humanist", in: ''The Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson'' (with another text by

Beaumont Newhall Beaumont Newhall (June 22, 1908 – February 26, 1993) was an American curator, art historian, writer, photographer, and the second director of the George Eastman Museum. His book ''The History of Photography'' remains one of the most significa ...

), New York: Museum of Modern Art *1952 – ''The Classic Ballet: Basic Technique and Terminology'' with Muriel Stuart, New York: Knopf *1959 – ''What Ballet Is All About: An American Glossary,'' with photographs by

Martha Swope Martha Joan Swope (February 22, 1928 – January 12, 2017) was an American photographer of theatre and dance. Early life and education Born in Tyler, Texas, she studied at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, before becoming a student at the Schoo ...

, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Dance Perspectives *1965 – ''Rhymes and More Rhymes of a Pfc.'', a book of poems. The poet

praised this book as "the most convincing, moving and impressive" book he had read about

. *1967 – ''Whitehouse Happening'', a play about President Lincoln's assassination *1967 – ''The Dance Encyclopedia'', by Anatole Chujoy, P.W. Manchester and Kirsten *1969 – ''

W. Eugene Smith William Eugene Smith (December 30, 1918 – October 15, 1978) was an American photojournalist.Peacock, Scot. "W(illiam) Eugene Smith." ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2003. ''Biography In Context'' He has been described as "perhaps the si ...

: Success or Failure, Art or History'', in: ''W. Eugene Smith: His Photographs and Notes'', New York: Aperture *1970 – ''Dance: A Short History of Classic Theatrical Dancing'' *1970 – ''Movement and Metaphor: Four Centuries of Ballet'', New York and Washington: Praeger Publishers *1973 – ''

Elie Nadelman Elie Nadelman (born Eliasz Nadelman; February 20, 1882 – December 28, 1946) was a Polish-American sculptor, draughtsman and collector of folk art. Early years Nadelman was born and studied briefly in Warsaw and then visited Munich in 1902 ...

'', New York: Eakins Press *1973 – ''The New York City Ballet'' with photographs by Martha Swope and

, New York: Knopf. *1975 – ''Nijinsky Dancing'' *1978 – ''Thirty Years: Lincoln Kirstein's The New York City Ballet: expanded to include the years 1973–1978, in celebration of the company's thirtieth anniversary'' *1980 – ''Rhymes of a Pfc'' (rev. ed. 1980), Boston: David R. Godine. *1983 – ''Ballet, Bias and Belief: Three Pamphlets Collected and Other Dance Writings'', New York: Dance Horizons. *1984 – ''

'', New York: Imago Imprint *1984 – ''Fifty Ballet Masterworks: From the 16th Century to the 20th Century'' *1987 – ''Quarry: A Collection in Lieu of Memoirs'', Pasadena, California: Twelvetrees Press, *1987 – ''The Poems of Lincoln Kirsten'' New York: Atheneum. *1989 – ''Memorial to a Marriage'', a history and meditation on the

Adams Memorial The Adams Memorial is a proposed United States presidential memorial to honor the second President John Adams; his wife and prolific writer Abigail Adams; their son, the sixth President John Quincy Adams; John Quincy Adams' wife Louisa Catherine ...

, by

Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he trave ...

and

Stanford White Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect. He was also a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms. He designed many houses for the rich, in additio ...

. *1991 – ''By with to and from: A Lincoln Kirstein Reader'', edited by Nicholas Jenkins, New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus and Giroux *1992 – ''Puss in Boots'', by Kirstein and Alain Vaes *1994 – ''Tchelitchev'', Santa Fe, New Mexico: Twelvetrees Press, *1994 – ''Mosaic: Memoirs'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux *2007 – ''Lincoln Kirstein: A Bibliography of Published Writings, 1922–1996'', New York: Eakins Press Foundation

References

;Notes ;Sources * American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas. (1946). ''Report.'' Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. * Dirda, Michael
"The man who did more for the arts in America than anyone else,"
''Washington Post.'' April 22, 2007. * Harris, Andrea

New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. * Hume, Patrick. ttp://www.artseditor.com/html/opinions/0607_kirstein.shtml Martin Duberman's Review of ''The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein,''"''ArtsEditor.'' June 4, 2007. * Kimmelman, Michael
"Kirstein's Lust for Art and Artists,"
''New York Times.'' May 11, 2007. * * * Nicholas, Lynn H. (1995)
''The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Teasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War.''
New York:

Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Hous ...

.
OCLC 32531154
* Scannell, Vernon (1976). ''Not Without Glory: Poets of the Second World War''. London: Woburn Press. * Scannell, Vernon (1977).'' A Proper Gentleman''. London: Robson Books.

External links

Lincoln Kirstein Bibliography

Lincoln Kirstein papers, circa 1913–1994
Jerome Robbins Dance Division,

Lincoln Kirstein papers, 1951–1999
Jerome Robbins Dance Division,

Letters from Lincoln Kirstein to Donald Ritchie, 1957–1964
Jerome Robbins Dance Division,

Letters to Lincoln Kirstein, 1947–1976
Jerome Robbins Dance Division,

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

(

Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) is the primary television and radio public broadcasting network for most of the U.S. state of Oregon as well as southern Washington. OPB consists of five full-power television stations, dozens of VHF or UHF tra ...

)
"The Rape of Europa."
2006 film, aired November 24, 2008 * Monuments Men Foundation
Kirstein, Pfc. Lincoln E.
* Obituary: Anderson, Jack

''New York Times.'' January 6, 1996. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirstein, Lincoln 1907 births 1996 deaths American art collectors Philanthropists from New York (state) American socialites Harvard University alumni New York City Ballet Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients United States National Medal of Arts recipients Writers from Boston Writers from Rochester, New York Bisexual men Bisexual writers American LGBT writers LGBT people from New York (state) Ballet impresarios Dance historians Jewish American philanthropists Monuments men American LGBT poets United States Army personnel of World War II 20th-century American poets Dance in New York (state) LGBT Jews 20th-century American historians United States Army soldiers Berkshire School alumni