[Rarebooks] For Sale:Bruno Walter's Autobiography, Inscribed

[Norman Kane]

WALTER, BRUNO.   THEME AND VARIATION: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  TRANSLATED 
FROM THE GERMAN BY JAMES A. GALSTON.  N. Y.: Knopf, 1946.  First US 
edition , inscribed on page [1]: "To Norris West very cordially Bruno 
Walter, Philadelphia, February 1947."   Original cloth, excellent 
copy in lightly worn dust wrapper (d.w. by Grushkin.) Tipped in is 
the Program for the Phila. Orchestra's Mar. 3, 1947 concert conducted 
by Walter (Wagner & Richard Strauss - what ?  No Mahler?, no 
Bruckner? !!)  The program notes are all taken from passages in this 
book.  West was the radio commentator for the Orchestra's 
concerts.  (Walter, who was Jewish (originally named Schlesinger) 
left Germany in 1933, and then had to leave Austria in 1938. He spent 
much of the remainder of his long life in the U.S. and was for 50 
years a major figure on the world musical scene.  On p. 342 he says: 
"Invitations from the splendid Philadelphia Orchestra have led to the 
formation of highly gratifying ties."   An interesting association 
copy by a leading maestro of the 20th Century.  $75.00
(Trade Discount Available)


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