Author Description

Excerpt from Letters and Papers He was accordingly but little understood, - revered always, respect ed, sought after, sometimes feared and even disliked; but those who were not-his friends knew him only as a man of mettle and an op ponent against whom struggle was futile unless they were themselves valiant and well armed. The arrogance that many felt in Oscar Weil was usually but a reproof of that which he deemed in others a lack of reverence for the values which he worshipped with a humility at times almost naive. Nevertheless there was in him something of the spirit of Cyrano. He could sacrifice both feelings and sentiment to the integrity of the dramatic situation; he would force relationship into artificial channels to sustain perhaps a gesture or a chance word, de lightful to his sense of the fit. And he was even capable in these moments of turning upon those for whom he really cared, and of wounding them, perhaps bitterly. But whosoever accepted Mr. Weil on his own terms -and that was the only way one could have him found in him something exceedingly rare and genuine. When, in I 8 98 Weil returned for the last time to San Francisco, it was with teaching that he principally occupied himself. The scope of the city's musical life can be seen from the excerpts from the Argo ndw' criticisms contained in the body of this volume. From these it will be easily inferred that for a man of his natural capacities, his vi tality and aspiration, he must have keenly felt the crudity of his sur roundings, - for his was not the pioneering temperament. Indeed one had always the impression that he was somewhat embittered by his milieu and by the lack of that intelligent appreciation and under standing which he craved but would not seek. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art te