Ebook The Life and Letters of Sir George Grove Formerly Director of the Royal College of Music

Sir George Grove, though often urged to write his Life, never did more than dictate in 1897 a number of discursive anecdotic reminiscences, filling half-a-dozen copy-books. In addition to these, he left a quantity of autobiographical material in his letters, in the diaries kept during his stay in Jamaica and his tours in the Holy Land, in his speeches and addresses, and above all in between seventy and eighty of the little pocket-books that he invariably carried about with him. In view, therefore, of his strongly expressed preference for the autobiographical method, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to let him tell his own story in his own words.

I think it right, however, to add that this is neither a critical nor a complete memoir. The necessary detachment of view is impossible of attainment in dealing with one who died so recently: and, apart from that, I owe Sir George Grove far too much to be able to approach the task in a spirit of judicial impartiality. On the other hand, he had an immense circle of friends and acquaintances, and with the best intentions it is inevitable that I should have failed to mention many of his associates, possibly some of his intimates.