Some lyricists gain notoriety through their association with a particular composer, a series of successful Broadway musicals, or their eccentric and controversial lifestyles. Harold Adamson, by contrast, is relatively unknown to the general public, although he was esteemed by his peers. During the course of his career he collaborated with many composers, most often with Jimmy McHugh but also with Vincent Youmans, Burton Lane, Hoagy Carmichael, Walter Donaldson, Vernon Duke, Sammy Fain, Jule Styne, Victor Young, Eliot Daniel, and J. Fred Coots. A well-mannered, good-natured man, Adamson was temperamentally suited to the collaborative nature of his art. He wrote primarily for Hollywood musicals, for which songwriters were considered much less important than they were on Broadway, where their names usually topped the theater marquee for musicals. Most movie songs, moreover, are less "theatrical" than songs for the musical stage, evincing a more casually colloquial style. Adamson was a...