Everyone knows the name Rudolf Nureyev, but does anyone know the man behind the myth? Diane Solway does; she spent over four years and conducted more than 200 interviews with his family, his friends and lovers, his colleagues, and even his doctors to research Nureyev: His Life the first book to capture him as he was onstage and off, a great artist whose talent was matched only by his steely will to succeed.

From the moment Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West in 1961 he was a star. His defection propelled him into the headlines; his talent and his inspiration kept him there. Not since Nijinsky had the image of the male dancer projected such animal magnetism, powerhouse sensuality and ardent romanticism. Born on the eve of World War II, Nureyev trained at the Bolshoi where his talent was swiftly identified. From his defection to the West at the height of the Cold War until his death 40 years later he lived his life on a sweeping and grand scale and always in front of an audience. He was one of the first pop icons of the sixties and he reached beyond the dance public to capture the imagination of the world at large.

Here is his professional career: his famed partnership with Margot Fonteyn, his personal transformation of the Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet, his impact on dance companies all over the world, his collaborations with Martha Graham and Paul Taylor, and, behind all his accomplishments, the athletic grace and profound understanding that was his gift of genius. Here, too, is the private Nureyev: his Soviet childhood, his inner demons, the men and women who were willing to devote their lives to him.

Solway chronicles his flamboyant, extravagant lifestyle, his celebrity-studded circle of friends;Jacqueline Onassis, Andy Warhol, and Marlene Dietrich, to name only three, his stormy love affairs, his homosexual promiscuity, and his death from AIDS in 1993. Nureyev was his own masterpiece, a man always in the process of reinventing himself. Diane Solway's superb biography is as brilliant and as fascinating as the dazzling dancer at center stage.

She also drew from another rare book, Rudolf Nureyev: Three Years in the Kirov Theater. The result is a biography that objectively addresses the facts and fictions of an extraordinary life to create a vivid and balanced portrait.