Buch/Zeitschrift - Neues zum Jerry Goldsmith-Buch

[Marcus Stöhr]

Nachdem es lange still war, hat Lukas Kendell jetzt einen interessanten Text ins FSM-Forum geschrieben:

I saw some recent queries about this book on the Jerry Goldsmith forum so I decided to post the following here:

I was briefly involved with trying to help Carrie Goldsmith find a publisher for her manuscript, or self-publish, and also work on the book editorially. The manuscript had a lot of fascinating material but, as Carrie advised me, there were likely legal issues pertaining to some of the content (i.e. persons depicted therein). Unfortunately, in trying to explore ways to smooth over these legal issues, I showed the manuscript to someone without permission and when I fessed up to Carrie, she and her brother Joel decided -- and I don't blame them -- to terminate my involvement. This was entirely my fault and I take full responsibility.

The last I heard, Carrie had decided to shelve the book indefinitely. I have sworn not to share any of the content of the book outside of the brief excerpts that Carrie allowed us to quote in a couple of liner notes (as in The Last Run). I will say that the manuscript is fairly represented by the sample chapters published online, in that it is largely a presentation of the oral history Carrie began with her father during the last months of his life, interspersed with Carrie's interviews with other composers, film music figures, and family members, and Carrie's own journey of trying to connect with her father and detail difficult aspects of her personal history with him.

In my opinion, the book is not a true biography of Jerry Goldsmith but a very personal and candid memoir from Carrie's point of view with a great deal of literary potential. However, there is considerable work remaining to make the book fit for publication. In my observation, Carrie really poured her heart into the book, and made great personal sacrifices to work on it, and at this point she just doesn't want to deal with it anymore. In a way I feel like I was the straw that broke the camel's back, and as Joel and Carrie will likely read this, if they want a public apology, I offer it here. However, I will say I worked on the book with the best of intentions, and that the manuscript, as it stands now, is not appropriate for publication -- and to be perfectly clear, this is something on which Joel and Carrie appeared to agree with me.

It is regrettable that the manuscript may never reach the public. The responsible thing for Carrie and Joel Goldsmith to do would be to continue to work on the manuscript so that a version of it could be published -- even if online -- or alternatively provide the material to another author for a scholarly biography. I don't know what good it would do to write them letters to this effect.

I think I am characterizing the above fairly but it's likely Joel and Carrie, or someone else involved, might have a different recollection.

Please excuse me if I don't want to make any further statements on this book. It was a very difficult project to be associated with and I really regret my failure to help Joel and Carrie, and of course to the fans dying to read about Jerry Goldsmith.

Lukas Kendall

Schade sowas zu lesen, aber vielleicht erblickt das Buch doch irgendwann das Licht der Welt.

[ronin1975]

hmpf...

[BigMacGyver]

Nobody is perfect, nichtmal lukas. Auch er macht halt mal fehler.

Ehrlich gesagt finde ich das jetzt nicht sonderlich schlimm. Es interessiert mich nicht wer der privatmann goldsmith war, das geht mich sowieso nichts an und insofern wäre dieses buch für mich nur wegen der interviews mit seinen kollegen interessant und eventuellen anekdoten zu bestimmten jobs von denen man ohnehin selten details erfährt. So wie ich das bisher mitbekommen habe scheint der schwerpunkt des buches aber nicht auf diesen aspekten zu liegen.

[sami]

Zumal einige der etwas knarzigen Quotes von Goldsmith einigen Fans wahrscheinlich einen Wellensittich-Puls bescheren dürften (Stichwort: Williams, Horner).

Die Auszüge auf der Seite von Goldmith, Joel empfand ich eher als lesenswerte "Lose-Blatt-Sammlung". Auf jeden Fall waren die Hintergründe zur Arbeitsweise und Philosophie des Maestros überaus interessant - auch über den einzelnen Komponisten hinaus. Man erfährt doch einiges über Hollywood, wie es leibt und lebt.