Part of the Eminent Lives Series, this biography, written by the gifted author Robert Gottlieb, will describe the life of the dynamic George Balanchine, the foremost contemporary choreographer in ballet. Timed to coincide with the 2004 centenary of the artist's birth. The life and achievement of the great choreographer who both summed up everything that proceeded him in ballet, and extended the art form into radical yet inevitable new paths. Leaving Revolutionary Russia in 1924 (he was 20), he joined Serge Diaghilev's famous Ballets Russes, where he created his first enduring masterpiece, Apollo, cementing his lifelong collaboration with Stravinsky. In 1933 he arrived in America to found a school and a company, but the company as we know it – The New York City Ballet – didn't emerge until 1948. Meanwhile, he made ballets wherever opportunity allowed, while choreographing Broadway shows (four for Rodgers and Hart), movies (The Goldwyn Follies), even the circus – a ballet for elephants with a score by Stravinsky. By the time of his death, in 1983, he had been recognized as a member of the triad of the greatest modern masters, alongside Picasso and Stravinsky. Balanchine was married many times, always to outstanding ballerinas, but his truest muse always remained Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance.

Robert Gottlieb (born April 29, 1931 in New York City, New York) is an American writer and renowned editor in the book publishing business.

Gottlieb is a graduate of Columbia University. He is perhaps best known for discovering and editing Catch-22 by the then unknown Joseph Heller. Gottlieb has been Editor-in-Chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf but left in 1987 and succeeded William Shawn as editor of The New Yorker until 1992 when he was replaced by Tina Brown.

He's also been the subject of controversy involving rejecting the work of John Kennedy Toole (Pulitzer Prize winner of 'A Confederacy of Dunces"). Toole went into despair and later committed suicide in 1969.

For many years Gottlieb was associated with New York City Ballet, serving as a member of its board of directors. In this vein, he published several books by people from the dance world including Mikhail Baryshnikov and Margot Fonteyn. He also works as a dance critic for the New York Observer.