Author Description

This definitive biography of Gustav Holst (1874-1934), written by Holst's daughter, draws on personal reminiscences and Holst's letters to such friends as Ralph Vaughan Williams to provide an intimate and revealing account of the great English musician's life and work. Composer of the immensely popular Planets and leader with Vaughan Williams of the early twentieth-century renaissance in English music, Holst spent his life struggling against ill health and depression. Yet he did so with a remarkable and good-humored resilience that enabled him to produce some of the century's best-loved music. This paperback edition includes a new introduction, new illustrations, and a list of Holst's works.