An exceptionally intriguing collection of book reports, penned by a 16-year-old Bernstein, all signed in full or “L. Bernstein,” featuring nine pages, some front and back, all dated from October through December of 1934. In his beautifully formed penmanship, Bernstein writes with “too much embroidery,” as his teacher continually berates his style and inability to communicate “clear, hard thinking,” which she attests, “should produce exact, direct, virile expressions,” and orders, "Prune your style…You are too much concerned with the embroidery and too little with the substance of your material!" Some of Bernstein’s ‘embroidered’ interpretations are as follows, in part:
October 15, on John Galsworthy’s short story, ‘Loyalties’: "Had John Galsworthy done anything else but have his Captain Dancy, D.S.O. kill himself, his tendencies toward his audience would be certainly sadistic. He had, to that point, built up a story of a man, beloved and respected by all, suddenly accused of theft, "He was faced by the bleak, degrading farce of a trial from which he could never emerge free. No thinking or unthinking audience could be satisfied with anything less than the admirable suicide which he committed.”
November 13, on J. M. Barrie's theatrical war commentary, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals: "It is rather a subtle combination of social ideas and character that the author is concerned with. The first impression that we get of the four charwomen is their incessant battling over minor things. One of these battles own to them is a victory indeed. Each of these women is continually being forcibly raised or lowered a peg, meeting with success or reverses, but never ceasing the execution of their excuse for living."
November 19, on Elmer Rice's play, ‘Street Scene’: "Here is a so-called play which is not very far from not being a play; it is virtually a tableau…Let us first discuss the background. With this innovation in dramatic realism came a long cycle of play reflecting similar reality…Mr. Rice obviously had the intention to show these people in many moods…So we have brought together the warp of background and the woof of social study.”
December 3, on Hardy's, ‘Jude the Obscure’: “Hardy is essentially, to use his own words, a chronicler of moods and scenes…he has submitted a record of three very painful lives, lives which seemed to him of special import, and which, he thought, through translation to the written page, might be of some profit to the reader…I think Hardy is commonplace. I grant that he is unusually well-read and can tell a story convincingly; else he would never hold the rank he does…Yet I cannot discover anything in this book that might not appeal to me in simpler language…The story is reminiscent of the gay-nineties melodrama!”
Some light toning and creasing, two binder holes to the left edges, and the expected correction notations, otherwise fine condition.
Bernstein attended Boston Latin School beginning in 1929, where his academic achievements won him various prizes. Bernstein was already devoted to music, but never let his schoolwork suffer and excelled academically. His teachers nurtured his love for the patterns and rhythms of words, developing his skills as a lyricist. He graduated in 1935 and went on to study at Harvard, where, bored with highly theoretical music courses, he studied language and philosophy. A fascinating glimpse into the thinking and early writings of the great composer. RRAuction COA.
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