Composer, impresario, Harvard lecturer, television personality, cultural icon and conductor, Leonard Bernstein is one of the most charismatic musicians of the 20th century. He conquered Broadway with such hits as On the Town and West Side Story; he introduced enormous numbers of people to classical music with his Omnibus and Young People's Concerts on television; and he extracted inspired performances from some of the world's best orchestras. Based on interviews with surviving family, friends and colleagues, as well as Bernstein's own rich legacy of letters and papers, this biography provides a portrait of a man full of contradictions. Constantly feeding his enormous appetite for the spotlight, Bernstein led a life emotionally complicated by his desperate need to be loved, squandering, his critics might charge, his seemingly inexhausible talent and energy. Humphrey Burton, an award-winning broadcaster and journalist, was a friend and colleague of Bernstein's for the last 30 years of his life.