Elegant risqué, suffused with understated emotion, delightful in their bursts of comic invention, the witty and romantic lyrics of Cole Porter evoke a golden age of song. Porter was one of the few master songsmiths who wrote both music and lyrics, and even in the absence of his melodies his words still dance on the page. From Porter’s more than eight hundred songs, music historian Robert Kimball has selected his finest flights of invention, lyrics that are an indelible part of American culture: “Let’s Do It,” “Love for Sale,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Anything Goes,” “In the Still of the Night,” “Too Darn Hot,” and dozens more.

Robert Kimball is a historian of the American musical theater whose books include The Gershwins (with Alfred Simon), Reminiscing with Sissle and Blake (with William Bolcom), Reading Lyrics (with Robert Gottlieb), and volumes devoted to the complete lyrics of Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Frank Loesser. He is the longtime advisor to the Cole Porter Musical and Literary Property Trust, and the editor of several books on Cole Porter

About the American Poets Project

Elegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by discerning poets and critics.