Carolyn Leigh was the youngest of the three female lyricists--along with Dorothy Fields and Betty Comden--who occupied a central position in the golden age of American popular music, having produced a body of work equal in fame and stature to the most prominent men who ruled the genre. In the time before rock and roll and a generation of such feminist singer-poets as Carole King and Joni Mitchell, Fields, Comden, and Leigh were the voice of their sex and (because they were in the big leagues) not really "women songwriters" at all but songwriters who happened to be women. Like Fields but even more so, Leigh is underappreciated. The fame of her work is in sharp contrast with the obscurity of her name, even in theatrical circles. Yet, the songs she wrote are ingrained in American daily life. Leigh has hundreds of songs to her credit--including such pop...