Books by Stephen Walsh

A meticulously-researched biography of the great 20th-century composer by a biographer who is also a musicologist and who worked to get beyond the often unreliable stories Stravinsky told about his life.

In addition to being a great composer, Igor Stravinsky was one of the most fascinating personalities of his time. The first volume of this definitive biography covers Stravinsky's life and work from his birth in 1882 through to 1934, with special focus on his Russian roots and his struggles to make his way in Switzerland and France.

In 1934, Igor Stravinsky was fifty-two, a Russian expatriate living in Paris and already regarded by many as the most important composer of his generation. This work follows Stravinsky through the remainder of his long life, which he would spend largely in the United States. It also shows his increasingly complex and often agonised family life.