The sixth volume in Knopf’s critically acclaimed Complete Lyrics series contains the text to more than 850 songs by the preeminent musical dramatist of the twentieth century.
Oscar Hammerstein II’s body of work ranged from the operettas of the twenties and thirties through the golden era of the Broadway and Hollywood musicals of the forties and fifties. With
Jerome Kern he wrote eight musicals, including Show Boat. In 1943 he joined forces with Richard Rodgers, and together they created the most successful partnership in the American
musical theater. Oklahoma!, the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, was followed by Carousel, the movie State Fair, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, Me and
Juliet, Pipe Dream, the TV musical Cinderella, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music.
“Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” . . . “Ol’ Man River” . . . “Getting to Know You” . . . “Do-Re-Mi” . . . “The Last Time I Saw Paris” . . . “All the Things You Are” . . . “You’ll Never Walk
Alone” . . . “ShallWe Dance?” . . . “Some Enchanted Evening” . . . “My Favorite Things” . . . “It Might as Well Be Spring” . . . these 850 songs, the whole of Hammerstein's career, are works
of lyrical beauty and universal feeling—and each is an essential part of our national fabric.
