Stravinsky in the Americas explores the “pre—Craft” period of Igor Stravinsky’s life, from when he first landed on American shores in 1925 to the end of World War II in 1945. Through a rich archival trove of ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and other documents, eminent musicologist H. Colin Slim examines the twenty—year period that began with Stravinsky as a radical European art—music composer and ended with him as a popular figure in American culture. This collection traces Stravinsky’s rise to fame—catapulted in large part by his collaborations with Hollywood and Disney and marked by his extra—marital affairs, his grappling with feelings of anti—Semitism, and his encounters with contemporary musicians as the music industry was emerging and taking shape in midcentury America. Slim’s lively narrative records the composer’s larger—than—life persona through a close look at his transatlantic tours and domestic excursions, where Stravinsky’s personal and professional life collided in often—dramatic ways.