Book Review

The Richard Rodgers Reader. By Geoffrey Block. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-513954-2 (cloth). Pp. xii, 356. $32.50

Richard Rodgers (1902-79) was one of America's most prolific and successful popular composers of the first half of the twentieth century. As a songwriter, Rodgers occupies a central place in the core repertory of Great American Song. No fewer than nine of his songs are listed among Variety's Golden 100 songs of Tin Pan Alley, a figure that equals Irving Berlin's status among all songs copyrighted between 1918 and 1956. Rodgers's work in collaboration with lyricists Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) and then Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) arguably did more to shape and transform the American stage musical than that of any other single composer.