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Elgar Works is pleased to announce the publication of the third volume in its uniform edition, Edward Elgar: Collected Correspondence. An Elgarian Who's Who represents a particularly noteworthy achievement for its compiler, Martin Bird. Martin, one of the General Editors of the Collected Correspondence and the current editor of the Elgar Society Journal, is an authority on the life of Elgar. His researches in the backwaters of Victorian and Edwardian music history have resulted in a database that has grown to some six million words. The database includes transcriptions of all letters to and from Elgar that Martin has managed to locate, and of all surviving Elgar family diaries, together with reviews, newspaper articles and other relevant material, amounting to some 15,000 items in total. Together these form the basis of the Collected Correspondence edition.
Originally undertaken as an aid to his own researches, An Elgarian Who's Who makes available to all the encyclop�dic knowledge Martin has amassed over the years. Much of this results from his supplementary research, often through contact with the descendents of those known to Elgar, to identify as many as possible of the individuals named in the Collected Correspondence. An Elgarian Who's Who lists every person mentioned in Edward's and Alice's diaries, and every person for whom correspondence with Edward and Alice is known to survive. Whilst for a proportion the scant information contained in the diaries and correspondence makes an unambiguous identification impossible, for the vast majority brief biographies are given, together with the circumstances in which they met or corresponded with Elgar and his family. Although designed as a reference companion to the volumes of correspondence and diaries which no reader will want to be without, it will prove an invaluable aid to anyone researching, or simply interested in, the lives of the Elgar family. While structured as a reference volume, many will find the entries a compelling read, providing as fascinating an insight into the lives of the Elgars and those in the circles in which they mixed as the volumes of diaries and correspondence themselves.
With a recommended retail price of £40.00, the volume can be obtained through all good book stores and specialist music shops, or directly from the publisher. For details, visit the How to Purchase page.
Series I Vol.2 ; x + 562 pages ; 152mm x 232mm
cloth binding ; ISBN: 978-1-904856-53-5; Publication date: 5 May 2014
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