Alec Wilder in spite of himself : a life of the composer

Alec Wilder wrote songs and lyrics of unsurpassed beauty and originality, and his work won the respect and admiration of such important musical figures as Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Mitch Miller, Gunther Schuller, and many others. Yet Wilder seemed almost to court obscurity. He spent much of his time riding trains, and his only home was a small room he maintained at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan (where he often held court in the lobby). Both in the music he composed and in the way he lived his life, Wilder valued the unique and eccentric over the established and easily acceptable. Desmond Stone's engaging and lively biography brings Alec Wilder's life and music into the spotlight where it belongs. Ranging from Wilder's childhood in Rochester, New York, to his rise as a major writer of popular songs in the 1940s, to his relationships with Frank Sinatra and the cabaret singer Mabel Mercer, Stone gives us rich insight into the creative process and profound influence of this highly unorthodox composer.