The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven: Volume 1

The 1921 three-volume English edition of a landmark biography of one of the world's greatest composers.

American author Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1817–97) sought to write an authoritative biography of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). A landmark in its use of source material, it remained unfinished at his death. This three-volume English edition, translated and revised from German versions, was first published in 1921.This authoritative biography of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was a landmark in its meticulous research and use of source material. For the American author Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1817–97), it represented a lifelong labour of love, yet it remained unfinished at his death. His friend Hermann Deiters (1833–1907) edited and translated Thayer's work into German, publishing three volumes which covered Beethoven's life to 1816. Since Deiters also died before the biography could be completed, musicologist Hugo Riemann (1849–1919) was called upon to conclude the work. The final German volumes appeared in 1907 and 1908. It was the American critic Henry Edward Krehbiel (1854–1923) who prepared the present work, the first and considerably revised English version, published in three volumes in 1921. Volume 1 covers Beethoven's career through to 1802, the year of the Heiligenstadt Testament.