Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great Elbert Hubbard Anniversary Edition Printed and made into a Book by The Roycrofters, who are in East Aurora, Erie County, New York Wm. H. Wise & Co. New York Copyright, 1916, By The Roycrofters CONTENTS RICHARD WAGNER 9 PAGANINI 47 FREDERIC CHOPIN 75 ROBERT SCHUMANN 107 SEBASTIAN BACH 133 FELIX MENDELSSOHN 161 FRANZ LISZT 185 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 221 GEORGE HANDEL 249 GIUSEPPE VERDI 273 WOLFGANG MOZART 297 JOHANNES BRAHMS 331 INDEX +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber's note: Obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been| |corrected. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ [Illustration: RICHARD WAGNER] RICHARD WAGNER Was ever work like mine created for no purpose? Am I a miserable egotist, possessed of stupid vanity? It matters not, but of this I feel positive; yes, as positive as that I live, and this is, my "Tristan and Isolde," with which I am now consumed, does not find its equal in the world's library of music. Oh, how I yearn to hear it; I am feverish; I am worn. Perhaps that causes me to be agitated and anxious, but my "Tristan" has been finished now these three years and has not been heard. When I think of this I wonder whether it will be with this as with "Lohengrin," which now is thirteen years old, and is still dead to me. But the clouds seem breaking, they are breaking--I am going to Vienna soon. There they are going to give me a surprise. It is supposed to be kept a secret from me, but a friend has informed me that they are going to bring out "Lohengrin." --_Wagner in a Letter to Praeger_ RICHARD WAGNER Absurd and silly people make jokes about mothers-in-law, stepmothers and stepfathers--we will none of this. My heart warms to the melancholy Jacques, who dedicated his book to his mother-in-law, "my best friend, who always came when she was needed and never left so long as there was work to do." Richard Wagner's stepfather was his patient, loving and loyal friend. The father of Wagner died when the child was six months old. The mother, scarcely turned thirty, had a brood of seven, no money and many debts. There is trouble for you--ye silken, perfumed throng, who nibble cheese-straws, test the hyson when it is red, and discuss the heartrending aspects of the servant-girl problem to the lascivious pleasings of a lute!