In this well written and researched bio, Marmorstein examines the life of lyricist Lorenz Hart, half of one of the most highly regarded songwriting teams of the twentieth century. Along with composer Dick Rodgers, Hart turned out such classics as “My Funny Valentine,” “Blue Moon,” and “The Lady is a Tramp,” just to name a few. His lyrics reinvigorated the popular music scene between the two world wars, but the real life of Larry Hart was not a romantic tale. Painfully short, alcoholic, with a cigar always clamped in his teeth, the homosexual Hart was a gifted but troubled man. F. Scott Fitzgerald referred to him as “the poet laureate of America,” but like Fitzgerald, Hart would die young - a life too short for such a giant gift.