Alexander Wheelock Thayer

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Alexander Wheelock Thayer (b. South Natick, Massachusetts, USA, 17 October 1817, d. Trieste, Italy, 15 July 1897), was a librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of reference on the composer.

[edit] Life

Originally a librarian at Harvard law school, Thayer became aware of many discrepancies in the biography of Beethoven by Anton Schindler, Beethoven's sometime amanuensis, which had first appeared in 1840. (The unreliability and invention of Schindler have since been extensively exposed by later scholars). In 1849 Thayer sailed for Europe to undertake his own researches, learning German and collecting information. Supporting himself by journalism and after many privations, he was eventually appointed US Consul in Trieste, where he was able to pursue his labours. The first edition of the biography, (in German), in three volumes, covering Beethoven's life to 1816, appeared between 1866 and 1879. The work was completed by Thayer's German colleague Herman Deiters and, after Deiters's death, by Hugo Reimann.

Thayer's work on Beethoven set a benchmark for modern standards of accuracy, research and analysis in biography.

In 1865 Thayer wrote:

I fight for no theories and cherish no prejudices; my sole point of view is the truth.

Henry Krehbiehl, who created the first English edition of the biography in 1921, wrote of Thayer in 1917:

His industry, zeal, keen power of analysis, candor and fair-mindedness won the confidence of all with whom he casme into contact except the literasry charlatans whose romances he was bent on destroying in the interest of the verities of history.

The most recent version of the biography is revised and edited by Elliot Forbes (2 vols., Princeton University Press, 1967, ISBN 069109103x)