author
Francis Mason
A lifelong dance critic and editor, he helped generations of readers see ballet with sharper eyes and deeper feeling. His books and essays are especially valued for preserving the voices and memories of great figures in 20th-century dance.
2 Audiobooks
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910 The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The East River Tunnels. Paper No. 1159
by James H. Brace, Francis Mason, S. H. Woodard
About the author
Francis Mason was an American dance critic, editor, and writer whose work was closely tied to the world of ballet. Penguin Random House notes that he began writing about dance in 1950 as The Hudson Review’s first ballet critic, and later served in leadership and advisory roles with the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance, Ballet Review, and the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library.
He is especially remembered for books that brought dance history to life through story and firsthand recollection. Among his best-known works are 101 Stories of the Great Ballets, created with George Balanchine, and I Remember Balanchine, a large oral history that gathered memories from many people who knew the choreographer.
Sources from his later years describe him not only as a critic but also as a cultural ambassador and devoted presence in the dance community. Records associated with I Remember Balanchine identify him as living from 1921 to 2009, and tributes published after his death remembered the many decades he gave to the art of dance.