Gordon (Eric A.) Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein Collection, 1850-2011, bulk Bulk, 1980-1991

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Summary

Title:
Eric A. Gordon's Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein Collection
Dates:
1850-2011, bulk Bulk, 1980-1991
Creators:
Gordon, Eric A., 1945-
Abstract:
Correspondence, playbills, programs, clippings, photographs, notes, grant proposals and other research material collected for the book, Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein (St. Martin's Press, 1989), by Eric A. Gordon. An American composer and gay man, Marc Blitzstein is perhaps most well-known for his 1937 musical, The Cradle Will Rock. The collection includes materials documenting Blitzstein's musical works, as well as correspondence files between biographer Eric A. Gordon and Blitzstein's family, friends and collaborators.
Extent:
6.0 linear feet. 5 archives boxes + 1 archive binder box + 1 archive flat box.
Language:
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Eric A. Gordon's Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein Collection, Coll2012-121, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

The collection comprises correspondence, playbills, programs, clippings, photographs, notes, grant proposals and other research material collected for the book, Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein (St. Martin's Press, 1989), by Eric A. Gordon. An American composer and gay man, Marc Blitzstein is perhaps most well-known for his 1937 musical, The Cradle Will Rock, his opera Regina, as well as his adaptation of The Threepenny Opera. The Marc Blitzstein Resource Material Series includes photocopied and original materials documenting Blitzstein's life and musical works. The bulk of the Correspondence and Research Series includes correspondence (and related notes) between biographer Eric Gordon and Blitzstein's family, friends and collaborators. The Publication Records Series includes grant proposals, photographs, promotional material, permissions and other administrative records in the publication and promotion of Gordon's biography on Blitzstein.

Biographical / historical:

Marc Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia, March 2, 1905. At the age of 6, he played his first solo piano recital in public; at 16, he performed a piano concert with the Philadelphia Symphony. He went on to study with teachers such as Nadia Boulanger in Paris. While in Europe, Blitzstein came to be influenced by modernists like Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

Upon returning to the United States, he began writing his own political operas, notably the pro-union musical, The Cradle Will Rock (1936), and No For An Answer (1940). The same year in which The Cradle Will Rock was produced, Blitzstein's wife, Eva Goldbeck, died after three years of marriage.

In 1942, Blitzstein enlisted in the Air Force and spent three years in the military. Out of this experience came his Airborne Symphony (1946). After the Air Force, Blitzstein wrote for films and theater, including Regina, Juno, and adaptations of Mother Courage and The Threepenny Opera. He was commissioned to compose an opera based on the Sacco and Vanzetti case of the 1920s. He completed two acts and outlined a third when, while on vacation in Fort-de-France, Martinique, Blitzstein got into a physical confrontation with three merchant seamen and subsequently died of a brain injury on January 22, 1964.

Source: Box 3, folder 30, Eric A. Gordon Collection on Marc Blitzstein, Coll2012-121, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California

Born in 1945, Eric A. Gordon is a graduate of Yale University, and holds both an M.A. (in Latin American studies) and a Ph.D. (in history) from Tulane University. In the 1980s, he worked as a publicity manager for the music publishing house of G. Schirmer. Beginning in 1995, Gordon was the director of the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring, Southern California District.

A member of the National Writers Union, he served on the board of the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, on the Western Region Administrative Committee of the Jewish Labor Committee, and on the editorial advisory board of Jewish Currents magazine. In the late-1970s, Gordon began his research for a biography on American composer Marc Blitzstein, Mark the Music, which was published in 1989. In addition to Mark the Music, Gordon is the co-author of Ballad of an American (Scarecrow Press, 1997), as well as hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.

In 2012, Eric Gordon continues to live in Los Angeles, CA.

Source: http://www.marcblitzstein.com/pages/biblio/articles/mark.htm (last accessed October 25, 2012.)

Acquisition information:
Donated by Eric A. Gordon, April 12, 2011.
Processing information:

Collection processed by Kyle Kaplan and Loni Shibuyama, November 2012.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Loni Shibuyama
Sponsor:
Processing this collection has been funded by a generous grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Date Prepared:
(c) 2012
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2013-05-01T14:46-0700

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Eric A. Gordon's Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein Collection, Coll2012-121, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:
909 West Adams Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007, US
Contact:
(213) 821-2771
askone@usc.edu
Website