The landmark biography of a Polish composer by one of the leading authorities on Chopin, "not one paragraph of this meticulously researched and often poignant account is wasted" (
Foreign Affairs)
Based on ten years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker's monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English. Walker's work is a corrective, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin.
Comprehensive and engaging, and written in highly readable prose, this biography wears its scholarship lightly: it is suited as much for the professional pianist as it is for the casual music lover. Just as he did in his definitive biography of Liszt, Walker illuminates Chopin and his music with unprecedented clarity in this magisterial biography, bringing to life one of the nineteenth century's most confounding, beloved, and legendary artists.
• For readers of Jan Swafford
