The career of Vaslav Nijinsky, genius of the dance, is endlessly fascinating. Anatole Bourman entered the Russian Imperial Ballet School at the same time as Nijinsky and became one of his closest friends, and for many years followed his development and career, first as a member of the Imperial Ballet, and later as star of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He tells the part of Nijinsky's story which other biographers have left untold - his youthful ambitions and defeats, his brilliant rise to fame, his exploits with other students, the almost incredible ill fortune which followed him from the first. The author gives his interpretation of Nijinsky's later career, which differs from the stories others have told.

Anatole Bourman was born in St. Petersburg. After graduating from the Imperial Ballet School he was for four years a member of the Imperial Ballet, and subsequently for ten years a member of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.