Joseph Epstein, Fred Astaire (Yale, $22). The latest addition to Yale’s “Icons of America” series is a 198-page tribute to America’s greatest dancer by one of America’s best essayists. Witty, thoughtful, concentrated, and astute, Fred Astaire goes a long way toward conveying the essential quality of an intensely private man who only seems to have come fully to life in the studio. Unlike most commentators, Epstein also pays proper attention to Astaire’s singing, but most of the book is devoted to his dancing–and, no less interestingly, the persona he projected in his films and TV appearances. After Arlene Croce’s indispensable 1974 monograph on the Astaire-Rogers films, this is the Fred Astaire book to have if you’re only having two (TT).
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
