The Diary Of Vaslav Nijinsky

00 Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), the "God of Dance," was on the verge of a mental breakdown when he wrote this diary as an outlet for his views on religion, art, love, and life. The diary provides unique insight into the inner life of a highly gifted but mentally disturbed creative genius. Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), the "God of Dance," was on the verge of a mental breakdown when he wrote this diary as an outlet for his views on religion, art, love, and life. The diary provides unique insight into the inner life of a highly gifted but mentally disturbed creative genius.

The astonishing, legendary diaries of the great dancer, complete and unexpurgated In December 1917, Vaslav Nijinsky, the most famous male dancer in the Western world, moved into a Swiss villa with his wife and three-year-old daughter and began to go mad. This diary, which he kept in four notebooks over six weeks, is the only sustained, on-the-spot written account we have by a major artist of the experience of entering psychosis. Nijinsky's diary was first published in 1936, in a heavily bowdlerized version that omitted almost half of his text. The present edition, translated by Kyril FitzLyon, is the first complete version in English and the first version in any language to include the fourth notebook, which was written at the very edge of madness. It contains Nijinsky's last lucid thoughts--on God, sex, war, and the nature of the universe, as well as on his own broken life. In her Introduction, the noted dance writer Joan Acocella explains the context of the diary and its place in the history of modernism.

In Dec. 1917, Vaslav Nijinsky, the most famous male dancer in the Western world, moved into a Swiss villa with his wife & daughter & started to go insane. This diary, which he kept in 4 notebooks over 6 weeks, is the only sustained, on-the-spot account we have by a major artist of the experience of entering psychosis. Nijinsky had come to fame as the principal dancer in Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. When madness struck, he began to image himself as God. He lived another 30 years, but he never regained his sanity. The present edition is the complete version in English, & the first version in any language to include the 4th notebook, written at the very edge of psychosis. Almost unbearable to read.Ó Illustrations.