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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: This is Terry, Louis!

November 14, 2007 by Terry Teachout

I put my Louis Armstrong biography aside in order to get married, and yesterday I took it up again in earnest–a good thing, too, since I’m having lunch with my editor tomorrow and have promised to deliver the manuscript to Harcourt next February.
As usual, I’m floundering in a sea of distractions, many of which have to do with the stagehands’ strike that has shut down most of Broadway and…er…fouled up my schedule beyond recognition. Among other things, I spent a chunk of time talking to a producer about a strike-related TV appearance that never happened (though it could take place tonight–watch this space for details). I also saw an off-Broadway show in the evening and fielded a day-long series of phone calls from Smalltown, U.S.A., where my mother underwent cataract surgery in the morning (she’s fine, thanks).
In between all these events, I worked at getting myself back up to speed on Armstrong in the Thirties, and by bedtime I was ready to start piling up words again. Today I roll up my sleeves and resume work on the seventh chapter, in which Satchmo runs afoul of a Chicago gangster and heads for the hills.
More later, but I can already tell you that it’s awfully nice to be writing a book again.

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Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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