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The University of North Carolina Press
392 pp., 61/8 x 91/4, 22 illus., notes, bibl., index
Art, Money, and Modern Time
In the early decades of the twentieth century, almost everyone in modern theater, literature, or film knew of Otto Kahn (1867-1934), and those who read the financial press or followed the news from Wall Street could scarcely have missed his name. A partner at one of America's premier private banks, he played a leading role in reorganizing the U.S. railroad system and supporting the Allied war effort in World War I. The German-Jewish Kahn was also perhaps the most influential patron of the arts the nation has ever seen: he helped finance the Metropolitan Opera, brought the Ballets Russes to America, and bankrolled such promising young talent as poet Hart Crane, the Provincetown Players, and the editors of the Little Review.
This book is the full-scale biography Kahn has long deserved. Theresa Collins chronicles Kahn's life and times and reveals his singular place at the intersection of capitalism and modernity. Drawing on research in private correspondence, congressional testimony, and other sources, she paints a fascinating portrait of the figure whose seemingly incongruous identities as benefactor and banker inspired the New York Times to dub him the "Man of Velvet and Steel."
"This rich and fascinating biography tells the remarkable story of a remarkable man who, combining the power of an international financier with the finesse of a patron of the arts, helped make New York City a world cultural capital."
--Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
"Collins shows how [Kahn] gave away money nearly as quickly as he earned it, his contributions to music, literature, theater, dance, painting and design establishing New York City as an international cultural mecca. . . . Essential details are expertly negotiated, and thornier questions on the reality of latent anti-Semitism among the heirs of the Gilded Age are explored in depth. . . . As Collins aptly demonstrates, this 'self-made aristocrat' mastered the East without losing his soul, and in the process, he ennobled the arts he loved."
--Opera News
"Artistic interest and financial position merge in this examination of class, culture, and modernism in Western society. . . . The author's examination of Kahn's struggles with his own identity and sense of place in the midst of great change, especially in Germany, further broaden the volume's disciplinary boundaries."
--Choice
"A solid, well-researched, and insightful study of Otto Kahn, the premier American art patron of the early twentieth century."
--Journal of American History
"The biography rests on prodigious research. . . . Collins makes outstanding use of those material available to her."
--Business History
"A considered and nuanced account of [the] early twentieth century American Medici. . . . Collins' accomplished biographical study profiles from the cinematic deftness with which she crosscuts facets of Kahn's life, an altogether appropriate technique in limning an existence so enamored of and beholden to modernity. Her use of the language of theater and film in interpretive contexts seamlessly brings his many worlds into a unified vision."
--Aufbau
Cloth: $45.00
© 2007 The University of North Carolina Press
116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
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