Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians

These flights of partially-informed musical/biographical fancy by the Illinois-born Elbert Hubbard are a great joy for people (like me) who enjoy reading the works of 19th-century and early-20th-century American eccentrics. As you will see (and read), Hubbard was one of a kind. Volume 14 of Hubbard's Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great from 1907, has character portraits of Wagner, Paganini, Chopin, Schumann, Bach, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Beethoven, Handel, Verdi, Mozart, and Brahms (an example of a hundred-year-old "top ten list" (I know, there are 12). At 359 pages it is a lot to read, but I'm putting a link to it here so that when times get tough you can dip into it. The other volumes in the set are also available on line. I particularly like reading his Love, Life & Work: Being a Book of Opinions Reasonably Good-Natured Concerning how to Attain the Highest Happiness for One's Self with the Least Possible Harm to Others.