Mozart as revealed in his own words
Mozart: The Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His Own Words by Mozart
 Friedrich KERST (1870 - ) and Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756 - 1791), translated by Henry Edward KREHBIEL (1854 - 1923)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His name is one of the most recognizable names in history and one of the most enduring of composers. At age 5, this “wunderkinder” took to the stage and began his life as a prolific and celebrated creator-genius of such luminous works the world has not known since. This collection of morsels taken from his personal letters is engaging and gives a look into the mind of the boy wonder. Was he mad? Was he miraculous? (Summary by Aaron Elliott)
EDITOR'S NOTE
The purpose and scope of this little book will be obvious to the reader from even a cursory glance at its contents. It is, in a way, an auto- biography of Mozart written without conscious purpose, and for that reason peculiarly winning, illuminating and convincing. The out- ward things in Mo/art's life are all but ignored in it, but there is a frank and full disclosure of the great musician's artistic, intellectual and moral character, made in his own words. The Editor has not only taken the trouble to revise the work of the German author and compiler, but, for reasons which seemed to him imperative, has also made a new translation of all the excerpts. Most of the translations of Mozart's letters which have found their way into the books betray want of familiarity with the idioms and colloquialisms employed by Mozart, as well as understanding of his careless, contradictory and sprawling epistolary style. Some of the intimacy of that style the new translation seeks to preserve, but the purpose has chiefly been to make the meaning plain. H. E. K. New York, June 7, 1905
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