| List of Photographs | p. viii |
| List of Musical Examples | p. ix |
| Foreword | p. xi |
| Acknowledgments | p. xv |
| Editor's Introduction | p. 1 |
| The Autobiography of Robert Russell Bennett | |
| Prologue | p. 9 |
| "Irving Berlin and I" | |
| Musical snobbery | |
| The Lady with the Red Dress | |
| Abram Chasins and "talent" | |
| Publisher Max Dreyfus | |
| p. 13 |
| The Bennett family tree | |
| Poliomyelitis and other childhood memories | |
| Moving from Kansas City to a Freeman, Missouri, farm | |
| A boyhood of music and baseball | |
| p. 29 |
| Growing up in Freeman | |
| High school graduation | |
| Early experiences with girls | |
| The Bennetts return to Kansas City | |
| Playing for vaudeville and silent films | |
| Study with Carl Busch | |
| p. 42 |
| To New York, 1916 | |
| Employment as copyist and arranger | |
| Winifred Merrill's Musical Autograms | |
| Army service during World War I | |
| Courtship and marriage to Louise Merrill | |
| Arranging at Harms, Inc. | |
| Incidental music for Shakespeare and the Barrymores | |
| Collaborations with Kern, Gershwin, et al. | |
| An astrologer's guidance | |
| p. 83 |
| To Paris, 1926 | |
| Lessons with Nadia Boulanger | |
| Beginning of a long association with Richard Rodgers | |
| p. 97 |
| Rodgers and Hart in London | |
| Show Boat and Helen Morgan | |
| Princess Charming and other London productions | |
| A Guggenheim Fellowship | |
| RCA's $25,000 composition contest | |
| Paris, Berlin, and the Bennetts' return to New York | |
| Vinton and Freedley | |
| Gershwin and Girl Crazy | |
| p. 118 |
| To Hollywood, 1930 | |
| Two prizes from RCA | |
| Leopold Stokowski | |
| Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Caesar, and other lyricists | |
| Dietz and Schwartz | |
| With Fritz Kreisler in Vienna | |
| Maria Malibran staged at Juilliard | |
| Sigmund Romberg | |
| Henry Hadley and the NAACC | |
| p. 151 |
| Hollywood beckons again: Show Boat (1936) | |
| Gershwin and Kern's Shall We Dance, Swing Time, A Damsel in Distress | |
| Some late 1930s compositions--Hollywood, Eight Etudes, Enchanted Kiss | |
| An encounter with Stravinsky | |
| A bounty of band music for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair | |
| Alfred Wallenstein | |
| Louis and Annette Kaufman | |
| Returning to New York | |
| p. 176 |
| Russell Bennett's Notebook (1940) and other adventures in network radio | |
| Joseph Schillinger | |
| A Symphonic Picture of "Porgy and Bess" | |
| Oklahoma! | |
| Carmen Jones and Billy Rose | |
| Stars of the Future (radio) | |
| Carousel | |
| Annie Get Your Gun | |
| Carnegie Hall (film) | |
| The Goldman Band | |
| Helen Keller | |
| Marian Anderson | |
| Robert Shaw | |
| p. 208 |
| Victory at Sea: arrangements for Arthur Fiedler | |
| Oklahoma! on film | |
| American Wind Symphony | |
| Project 20 and NBC Television | |
| My Fair Lady | |
| Overture to an Imaginary Drama | |
| Bells Are Ringing | |
| Flower Drum Song | |
| Marc Blitzstein's Juno | |
| p. 235 |
| The Sound of Music | |
| Camelot | |
| Cinderella | |
| On a Clear Day You Can See Forever | |
| Lincoln Center revivals, 1966 (Annie Get Your Gun and Show Boat) | |
| Mata Hari | |
| p. 240 |
| Remembrances: Irving Berlin, Vincent Youmans, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern | |
| p. 259 |
| "The Bohemians" | |
| Georges Enesco | |
| Symphony #7 for Fritz Reiner | |
| A collaboration with Rachmaninov | |
| Moving to the Warwick Hotel | |
| Some 1970s compositions | |
| Editor's Epilogue | |
| Epilogue | p. 273 |
| Eight Selected Essays | |
| Orchestrating for Broadway (1933) | p. 279 |
| Orchestration of Theatre and Dance Music (late-1930s) | p. 284 |
| Backstage with the Orchestrator (1943) | p. 293 |
| A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody (1944) | p. 297 |
| Eight Bars and a Pencil (1947) | p. 301 |
| All I Know about Arranging Music (1949) | p. 305 |
| On Writing Harp Music (1954) | p. 317 |
| Fools Give You Reasons (1967) | p. 320 |
| Afterword: A Tribute | p. 323 |
| Selected Compositions | p. 325 |
| Selected Concert Arrangements | p. 329 |
| Selected Stage and Film Credits | p. 333 |
| Selected Discography | p. 336 |
| Bibliography | p. 342 |
| Index | p. 345 |
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