Steven C. Smith is an American biographer of musicians and the author of biographies of the Hollywood composers

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in film scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarde ...

and

Max Steiner Maximilian Raoul Steiner (10 May 1888 – 28 December 1971) was an Austrian composer and conductor who emigrated to America and became one of cinema of the United States, Hollywood's greatest musical composers. Steiner was a child prodi ...

. Writing about Smith's biography of Steiner, ''Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood’s Most Influential Composer'', in

Film Comment ''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film ...

, the writer and critic Bruce Bennett comments on the "meticulously compiled trove of research and cannily contextualized analysis" that defines the book and writes Smith knits together Steiner's personal problems and professional successes in a way that closes out the biography with "honest irony and pathos".

Jonathan Kirsch Jonathan Kirsch is an American attorney, writer, and columnist for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He is an author of books on religion, the Bible, and Judaism. Biography Life Kirsch earned a B.A. degree in Russian and Jewish history from the Unive ...

, in the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

, called Smith's 1991 biography on Hermann, ''A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann'', "disciplined and discerning" and that Smith allows us to see the tragedy that Hollywood composers live with, the homage and money they get versus the "respectability of a conductor’s baton and a symphony hall" that they want but cannot get. Smith received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for his Herrmann biography in 1992. Writing in

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

, Chris Willman says that Smith's Herrmann biography was responsible for "a huge uptick of interest in that once neglected, now practically deified film composer". Smith also writes and produces documentaries and has received four Emmy nominations.

References

External links

Official website
*
Steven C. Smith
at

Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and readi ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Steven C. American biographers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)