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Finding Aid to Eric A. Gordon's Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein Collection, 1850-2011
Coll2012.121
Coll2012.121
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Title: Eric A. Gordon's
Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein Collection
Identifier/Call Number: Coll2012.121
Contributing Institution:
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
6.0 linear feet.
5 archives boxes + 1 archive binder box + 1 archive flat box.
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1980-1991
Date (inclusive): 1850-2011
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.
creator:
Gordon, Eric A., 1945-
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:
(last accessed October 25, 2012.)
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.
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.
Donated by Eric A. Gordon, April 12, 2011.
[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
Collection processed by Kyle Kaplan and Loni Shibuyama, November 2012.
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.
Following items have been separated from the collection:
Denson, Joan.
Except for One Little Problem: Memoir of a Life in Hiding. Fort Lee, NJ.: Barricade Books, 2001. (signed copy to "Susan")
The Making of "From Walls to Roses" [sound recording], produced by Eric A. Gordon, 1978. (1/4 in. open reel audiotape)
Show: The Magazine of the Arts. New York: Hartford Publications, Inc. Vol. IV, No. 6 (June 1964)
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Blitzstein, Marc
Gay and lesbian writers
Gay composers
Gay musicians
Jewish gay men
Musical theater
Opera