Latouche, c. early 1930s. 'He was allergic to discipline,' recalled a high school friend, 'and completely impervious to convention.'

Margaret Freeman Cabell Papers, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.

Latouche and Theodora Griffis, about the time of their marriage in 1940. The marriage lasted only a few years.

Courtesy of Erik Haagensen.

Paul Robeson, soloist in the sensational premiere radio broadcast of Ballad for Americans, November 5, 1939. The great African-American bass subsequently performed the work numerous times before crowds upwards of twenty thousand, and recorded the piece as well: 'Man in white skin can never be free, / While his black brother is in slavery.'

Singer-comedian Eddie Cantor, second from left, as the bullied Erwin Trowbridge in Banjo Eyes (1941), a musicalization of John Cecil Holm and George Abbott’s 1935 farce Three Men on a Horse, with a score by Duke and Latouche. Cantor seen here with, from left, Lionel Stander (as Patsy), Ray Mayer (as Frankie), and Audrey Christie (as Patsy’s girlfriend Mabel).

Lucas-Pritchard. New York Public Library.

The ensemble number 'The Wrong Side of the Railroad Tracks,' from Beggar’s Holiday (1946): 'It’s a sweet house that we sing about / Where the plumbing never plumbs, and the children shout / And the food’s so bad that the rats eat out / We wonder what the other side is like?'

Vandamm Studio. New York Public Library.

'Anxiety Drawing' by Latouche, 1949: 'April 3rd / 5:00 A.M. / Anxiety drawing: made while thinking of such envy-points as Partisan Review, and T.[ennessee] William’s [sic] lucky career; and such enemies as [writers] Irving Drutman, Howard Barnes, Donald Wyndham [sic] and his joyboy, etc.'

John Latouche Papers, Columbia University.

Alice Bouverie, née Astor, c. early 1950s, on her estate, Marienruh. A member of one of New York’s most patrician families, Bouverie became intimately friendly with Latouche in his later years. 'In the city, the two of them would go from one smoky club to another,' remembered their mutual friend Gore Vidal.

John Latouche Papers, Columbia University.

Carol Channing (as farmgirl Flora Weems reinvented as silent screen siren Delilah Modo) and Steve Reeves (as Samson) making a flicker, from The Vamp, a 1955 musical farce set against the early days of the film industry. The show flopped, but Channing won a Tony nomination for her performance.

Courtesy of George Helmer.

Latouche in Colorado around the time of the July 7, 1956, premiere of The Ballad of Baby Doe. He died at his country home in Vermont one month later, in the early morning hours of August 7. Louise Pote.

Central City Opera Archives, University of Denver.