Pamela Katz. The Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women, and Germany on the Brink.

Very good biographical study. The only (slight) criticism of the book is the political naivete of the author. She thinks that Brecht's lack of Communist Orthodoxy could lead him to a sticky end in Stalinist Russia (as, e.g. sister of Brecht's best friend and his lover, Carola). First, Bertolt Brecht was quite an Orthodox Marxist. From his prospective--as from the prospective of Stalin's victims among "Old Bolsheviks", e.g. Antonov-Ovseenko, V. Smirnov, Bokii--it was Stalinism with its imperialism, Anti-Semitism, oppression of workers, etc., which was a deviance. Second, no assurances of Communist Orthodoxy could spare anyone during the Great Purges. Similarly, she obviously assumes that if American MacCartyites were to realize Brecht's "quarrels" with the Communism, he would be treated differently. HUAC and the State Department could not care less about that. For instance, left-leaning industrialist's son Stefan Zweig who had not a Communist bone in his body was denied US visa, which led to his suicide in Brazil, while Lion Feuchtwanger, Stalin's apologist, was allowed to live happily in California. This, much milder repression, also depended on a particular case worker, visibility of the subject, her/his relationships with the neighbors and colleagues and their readiness to denounce him/her, etc.