The All-Around Man: Selected Letters of Percy Grainger, 1914-1961

Percy Grainger was one of the most colourful of this century's cultural figures. The All-Round Man depicts that scrambling diversity through seventy-six challenging letters from Grainger's "American" years, 1914-61. These letters are fascination to read: they are cultivated "rambles" (as Grainger actually called several of his compositions), not dissimilar to today's telephone conversations. Often written in Grainger's crunchy "Blue-eyed English", they explore uninhibitedly every corner of his public and private life. They reflect the magnificent attempts of a great but flawed mind to encompass the world.