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El Cabello De Beethoven/Beethoven's Hair
Follows a single lock of hair from Ludwig Van Beethoven, from the great composer's deathbed in 1827 to its 1994 sale at Sotheby's, and describes the scientific research done on it to uncover information about Beethoven's life.
331 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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1763 people want to read
About the author
Russell Martin
13 books12 followersRussell Martin directed, wrote, and produced the highly acclaimed and award-winning documentary Beautiful Faces, filmed in Mexico City, which premiered in 2012. He is a producer and co-writer of the award-winning documentary film Two Spirits and an award-winning, internationally published author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Sorrow of Archaeology and Beautiful Islands, as well as many nonfiction books. He has written for Time, the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and National Public Radio.
His nonfiction book Beethoven's Hair, a United States bestseller and a Washington Post Book of the Year, has been published in twenty-one translated editions and is the subject of a Gemini-award-winning film of the same name. His books have been optioned by Robert Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises, the Denver Center Theatre Company, and New World Television. He is, says Kirkus Reviews, “first and foremost a masterful storyteller.”
His highly acclaimed book, Picasso's War, has been published in seven international editions; Out of Silence, was named by the Bloomsbury Review as one of fifteen best books of its first fifteen years of publication, and A Story That Stands Like A Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West, won the Caroline Bancroft History Prize.
When he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Colorado College in 1995, the citation read, in part, “Mr. Martin offers to general audiences precise and accurate, but highly readable, studies of extraordinarily complex issues. He does more: he sees beyond what is already known; he moves beyond synthesis to new insights. His work is disciplined, analytical, and creative. It is also profoundly humane.”
His nonfiction book Beethoven's Hair, a United States bestseller and a Washington Post Book of the Year, has been published in twenty-one translated editions and is the subject of a Gemini-award-winning film of the same name. His books have been optioned by Robert Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises, the Denver Center Theatre Company, and New World Television. He is, says Kirkus Reviews, “first and foremost a masterful storyteller.”
His highly acclaimed book, Picasso's War, has been published in seven international editions; Out of Silence, was named by the Bloomsbury Review as one of fifteen best books of its first fifteen years of publication, and A Story That Stands Like A Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West, won the Caroline Bancroft History Prize.
When he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Colorado College in 1995, the citation read, in part, “Mr. Martin offers to general audiences precise and accurate, but highly readable, studies of extraordinarily complex issues. He does more: he sees beyond what is already known; he moves beyond synthesis to new insights. His work is disciplined, analytical, and creative. It is also profoundly humane.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 338 reviews
June 25, 2023
Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved was a riveting analysis of the mysteries surrounding Ludwig van Beethoven's life and health and musical genius. As Beethoven lay dying in 1827, a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller came to pay his respects to the great composer. The next day, following the death of Beethoven, Hiller snipped a lock of Beethoven's hair as a keepsake. The provenance of this lock of Beethoven's hair, sheltered nearly two hundred years in a glass locket, is utterly fascinating. The details and the myriad of people involved as it journeyed throughout the world was fascinating, an historic treasure hunt. This momentous and eventful journey was documented in alternate chapters detailing the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven.
"Like the bones of ancient Christian martyrs that were considered to be sacramental, like the venerated bodies of deceased Tibetan Buddhist Dalai Lamas, the long-treasured lock of Beethoven's hair was a true relic--a physical remnant of a once-living human being that kept alive the spirit of that person present and somehow wonderfully alive. And in Ludwig van Beethoven's case, how fitting it seemed that it was his hair that had survived. The wild mane that had framed his dark face in his waning years had characterized his unruly temperament as much as his arresting personal presence; it was symbolic of his enduring eccentricity as well as his certain genius; it echoed his artistry; it pointed indeed to his pain; and when Ferdinand Hiller and so many others clipped his hair as keepsakes in the last days of March 1827, they did so because they believed his music long since had proven that it would survive through the ages."
August 10, 2011
Although this book had an interesting story to tell, I had some issues with the way Martin chose to tell it.
For starters, the structure of the book was a little off-putting. He alternated chapters concerning the journey and fate of the hair with chapters about Beethoven's life, and I found that kind of jarring, somehow. I also found that he repeated himself a lot, and went into greater detail about seemingly minor incidents than felt necessary. Frankly, a lot of it felt like filler. This book could easily have been half the length, or perhaps just a feature article in a decent magazine.
One such example is the whole Gilleleje story. Denmark and its people were truly heroic during WWII, I will acknowledge. The story of how, as a country, they accepted Nazi rule up to a point, but when the line was crossed, pretty much unanimously stood up and said "No way. Not cool," and proceeded to help get hundreds of Jews out of the country to safety in Sweden is remarkable and really inspiring. It's the kind of story that helps restore your faith in humanity after so much else in the world shatters it, and I'm glad to have been made more aware of it. However, I think it was given more importance in this story than it really needed. I was particularly vexed by the oft-repeated notion that the lock played some kind of key role in the Gilleleje escape. Yes, it somehow made its way there, and once there, was given to the doctor, but to say that it played a significant role almost implies that Dr. Fremming wouldn't have helped otherwise, or maybe even would have deliberately hindered, and I just don't think that's true. He was there, he was helping, and someone happened to give him this thing. I understand that it's a step in the hair's journey, and that understanding that step would be very interesting to those directly involved with the hair, but I feel like it was given more importance than it really merited, simply because it's a mystery.
And finally, I found his writing style odd. For one thing, he seemed to feel it was necessary in the "history of the hair" chapters to use the pluperfect tense. I don't know why he felt this way, but I think it was a bod choice. For starters, it adds unnecessary complication to all your sentences, and usually renders them less clear, so that's a mark against it. It also leaves you with nowhere to go when you want to refer to something father back than your baseline. And it's one of those tenses that is hard to use consistently when it's your main tense. Some verbs and sentence constructions just sound very weird with that tense, and Martin got around that by simply using the simple past in those cases. Which is inconsistent, and frankly, just plain sloppy writing.
His use of adverbs is also unusual. I understand that there are those who are fanatical supporters of the ideal of no split infinitives, and that's fine. But there's no cause I'm aware of not to split the auxiliary verb from the main one. In fact, the Oxford Online specifically states that the adverb should fall between the auxiliary verb and the main verb. I don't have a US style manual handy (Chicago online requires a subscription), so I don't know what the deal is there, but in any case, my point is simply that Martin's insistence on putting his adverbs before his auxiliary verbs is weird and awkward to read, making me stumble pretty much every time I came to one.
The upshot is that while this book and its subject matter were interesting, I wish they'd been tackled by a better writer.
For starters, the structure of the book was a little off-putting. He alternated chapters concerning the journey and fate of the hair with chapters about Beethoven's life, and I found that kind of jarring, somehow. I also found that he repeated himself a lot, and went into greater detail about seemingly minor incidents than felt necessary. Frankly, a lot of it felt like filler. This book could easily have been half the length, or perhaps just a feature article in a decent magazine.
One such example is the whole Gilleleje story. Denmark and its people were truly heroic during WWII, I will acknowledge. The story of how, as a country, they accepted Nazi rule up to a point, but when the line was crossed, pretty much unanimously stood up and said "No way. Not cool," and proceeded to help get hundreds of Jews out of the country to safety in Sweden is remarkable and really inspiring. It's the kind of story that helps restore your faith in humanity after so much else in the world shatters it, and I'm glad to have been made more aware of it. However, I think it was given more importance in this story than it really needed. I was particularly vexed by the oft-repeated notion that the lock played some kind of key role in the Gilleleje escape. Yes, it somehow made its way there, and once there, was given to the doctor, but to say that it played a significant role almost implies that Dr. Fremming wouldn't have helped otherwise, or maybe even would have deliberately hindered, and I just don't think that's true. He was there, he was helping, and someone happened to give him this thing. I understand that it's a step in the hair's journey, and that understanding that step would be very interesting to those directly involved with the hair, but I feel like it was given more importance than it really merited, simply because it's a mystery.
And finally, I found his writing style odd. For one thing, he seemed to feel it was necessary in the "history of the hair" chapters to use the pluperfect tense. I don't know why he felt this way, but I think it was a bod choice. For starters, it adds unnecessary complication to all your sentences, and usually renders them less clear, so that's a mark against it. It also leaves you with nowhere to go when you want to refer to something father back than your baseline. And it's one of those tenses that is hard to use consistently when it's your main tense. Some verbs and sentence constructions just sound very weird with that tense, and Martin got around that by simply using the simple past in those cases. Which is inconsistent, and frankly, just plain sloppy writing.
His use of adverbs is also unusual. I understand that there are those who are fanatical supporters of the ideal of no split infinitives, and that's fine. But there's no cause I'm aware of not to split the auxiliary verb from the main one. In fact, the Oxford Online specifically states that the adverb should fall between the auxiliary verb and the main verb. I don't have a US style manual handy (Chicago online requires a subscription), so I don't know what the deal is there, but in any case, my point is simply that Martin's insistence on putting his adverbs before his auxiliary verbs is weird and awkward to read, making me stumble pretty much every time I came to one.
The upshot is that while this book and its subject matter were interesting, I wish they'd been tackled by a better writer.
November 8, 2015
Ludwig Van Beethoven lay dying in 1827 and a young inspiring composer Ferdinand Hiller snip a lock of his hair as keepsake which was the custom of the day. How this lock of hair traveled through the centuries of 1827 Vienna to be auctioned and sold on December 2, 1994 by Sotheby's auction house in London, England is a mystery? The book takes the reader thru Vienna, Denmark, Cologne, the sea port city of Gilleleje, and countless interviews to piece together this mystery.
At times the book reads like a textbook of historically facts and at other times it reads like a mystery novel of "who-did-it". For Beethoven's enthusiast and classically music lovers, it opens you to more information about his life, tribulations, medical illnesses, and closer to his musical genius. Over his lifetime Beethoven created 138 singular and extraordinary compositions to which he attached opus numbers, and two hundred more songs, canons, and dances he considered lesser works. May the magic of Beethoven live on.
Quote:
... at his bedside, a bright flash of lightening followed by a house-rattling clap of thunder roused him momentarily. He opened his eyes, raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist as if to spurn the sky's command, then his hand fell back to the bed. Ludwig van Beethoven was dead.
At times the book reads like a textbook of historically facts and at other times it reads like a mystery novel of "who-did-it". For Beethoven's enthusiast and classically music lovers, it opens you to more information about his life, tribulations, medical illnesses, and closer to his musical genius. Over his lifetime Beethoven created 138 singular and extraordinary compositions to which he attached opus numbers, and two hundred more songs, canons, and dances he considered lesser works. May the magic of Beethoven live on.
Quote:
... at his bedside, a bright flash of lightening followed by a house-rattling clap of thunder roused him momentarily. He opened his eyes, raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist as if to spurn the sky's command, then his hand fell back to the bed. Ludwig van Beethoven was dead.
May 5, 2024
This book is badly written but most importantly it is based on a legend - the hair in the locket is not Beethoven's - so all the insights that it claims to provide about Beethoven's health are spurious. The tale about the artifacts history is interesting but stripped of any direct connection to the compose it is just another family artifact with a 'story' attached to it. That reviewers as late last year appear ignorant that the hair's authenticity has been comprehensively debunked doesn't surprise - it was the sort of review that regurgitates the publishers publicity.
So it is a badly overwritten book based on nonsense. Does anyone have time to waste on this sort of studd?
So it is a badly overwritten book based on nonsense. Does anyone have time to waste on this sort of studd?
June 22, 2018
Leído en 2003. Creo que aún lo conservo. La historia me resultó curiosa, aunque tenía capítulos un poco menos interesantes.
February 12, 2008
As boring as this may sound--I was fascinated! It was amazing to see the progression of "beethoven's hair" along to modern times when we actually were able to do testing on it to find out why Beethoven was deaf. Probably my favorite part of the book was when his hair was with a violin in Denmark during WWII--it had probably 40 pages full of the heroism of the Danes during WWII. Obviously that has nothing to do with Beethoven (except that apparently a lock of his hair experienced it!), but well worth the read.
February 23, 2019
This historical non-fiction book is about the true story of Beethoven's lock of hair that was innocently snipped from the musician's corpse by a 15-year old piano student, Ferdinand Hiller who, before he died by the age of about 80, passed it to his only son, Paul Hiller, who in turn gifted it to an unknown museum in Germany and was mysteriously given to a doctor in a small town in Denmark by an unknown refugee fleeing the Nazism that was endangering the lives of the Jews in Europe.
Beethoven was not a Jew himself, but Ferdinand Hiller and his sons, Edgar and Erwin, were and if the lock of hair at some point had saved one of their lives, neither Edgar nor Erwin, who both survived WWII, lived to tell the tale.
And so the story goes along with a detailed who's who in 18th century concert music scene in Europe, where Beethoven was obviously the rockstar composer, commanding the respect and devotion of the listening public, not least the archdukes, doctors, and wealthy merchants who financially and socially support the beloved musician.
In the 21st century, the lock of hair, which has been in existence since 1827, came to the hands of the Danish doctor's legally adopted daughter, Michelle Larsen. She sold it at an auction for 3,600 pounds (sterling) to a doctor, Alfredo Guevara, a Beethoven fan, and who is connected to a Beethoven memorabilla collector, Ira Brilliant.
Truly, this book is the result of Guevara and Brilliant coming together to own something of Beethoven's. Their decision to have the strand of hair tested and analyzed by leading experts is just a natural consequence, but without Guevara and Brilliant's love for the deaf, but indomitable musician, the world will never even know who Ferdinand Hiller was or his account of the dying musician's last days. More importantly the world will never know the cause of Beethoven's many ills, his colic, most commonly, including his progressive loss of hearing. That he endured at all and long enough to produce great, powerful music is a revelation about the resolute musician. I say resolute because in Beethoven's own words:
Other things of note in this non-fiction book are Beethoven's letter to his brothers that was unsent and only read after his death and his letter to his Immortal Beloved, which he also kept secret during his lifetime.
Beethoven was not a Jew himself, but Ferdinand Hiller and his sons, Edgar and Erwin, were and if the lock of hair at some point had saved one of their lives, neither Edgar nor Erwin, who both survived WWII, lived to tell the tale.
And so the story goes along with a detailed who's who in 18th century concert music scene in Europe, where Beethoven was obviously the rockstar composer, commanding the respect and devotion of the listening public, not least the archdukes, doctors, and wealthy merchants who financially and socially support the beloved musician.
In the 21st century, the lock of hair, which has been in existence since 1827, came to the hands of the Danish doctor's legally adopted daughter, Michelle Larsen. She sold it at an auction for 3,600 pounds (sterling) to a doctor, Alfredo Guevara, a Beethoven fan, and who is connected to a Beethoven memorabilla collector, Ira Brilliant.
Truly, this book is the result of Guevara and Brilliant coming together to own something of Beethoven's. Their decision to have the strand of hair tested and analyzed by leading experts is just a natural consequence, but without Guevara and Brilliant's love for the deaf, but indomitable musician, the world will never even know who Ferdinand Hiller was or his account of the dying musician's last days. More importantly the world will never know the cause of Beethoven's many ills, his colic, most commonly, including his progressive loss of hearing. That he endured at all and long enough to produce great, powerful music is a revelation about the resolute musician. I say resolute because in Beethoven's own words:
Only my art held me back...It seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt was within me...
Other things of note in this non-fiction book are Beethoven's letter to his brothers that was unsent and only read after his death and his letter to his Immortal Beloved, which he also kept secret during his lifetime.
March 7, 2021
If you want an in-depth book about Ludwig van Beethoven then this book is for you. I was just curious about the testing of his hair and what the results were. Read no further, he had a huge amount of lead in his body. You can thank me for saving you hours of reading. I kept finding myself falling asleep while trying to finish the chapters.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2019
This is a delightful little book that is a wonderful read! Tells the story of Beethoven through a lock of his hair, carefully handed down for generations, and intermingled with the tale of how it came to be passed on through an encounter during World War II when Jews came through the Denmark city of Gilleleje and residents there tried to rescue them and transfer them through to Sweeden. It's a wonderful tale of the legendary classical composer and a relatively unknown but heroic tale from World War II. Even more interesting is when the hair comes to auction, is sold for a sum that very much helps the owner, and then is scientifically tested. For those who don't know, Beethoven suffered terribly from a number of problems beyond his well-known deafness in his final years, and the testing of the hair was sought to try to explain what happened to him. I am no doctor but his many agonizing symptoms sure read to me like he was poisoned accidentally at some time and the analysis shows it was likely from lead. Now this book was published back in 2000 and I don't know if any additional information in this regard has come to light since the writing, but I found it at a used book sale and so enjoyed the book I devoured it over two days! A great read and anyone who enjoys history will love and learn from this book!
February 25, 2013
On the whole, I really liked this book. It told a fascinating story -- the journey of a lock of Beethoven's hair from Vienna to the United States, by way of Cologne, Germany, Gilleleje, Denmark, and London, England; and its subsequent scientific testing. The intertwined biographies of Beethoven and the people who loved him or interacted with him down the years were particularly fascinating.
So, why only three stars?
First, because of a certain apparent carelessness in some of the writing. For instance, in the description of the initial cutting, Beethoven's hair is described as "half-gray," (p.33), whereas later, the authors call it "quite gray." (p. 101) Maybe they do not mean "entirely" when they say "quite," but it does read that way, and it gave me pause. They could save young readers a bit of confusion by making their adjectives match, or, better yet, leaving them out altogether.
A more troubling example occurs on page 82, where the authors describe the initial scientific research on the lock of hair. The current owners of the hair choose Dr. William Walsh to conduct an examination, and he sends samples out to other scientists, including Walter McCrone, whom the authors describe as follows:
Well! That gave me pause for more than one reason -- not least because I had seen The PBS Special about the Shroud of Turin recently. So, I knew that McCrone's research, though interesting, was not actually conclusive. And the whole topic of the Shroud of Turin is quite (meaning extremely!) controversial, so why drag it into a children's book unnecessarily, especially by means of such a clunky sentence?
Unfortunately, writing like this occasionally mars an otherwise fascinating story.
Episodes of awkward writing aside, there are also problems with the book design. And the main problem is that there is no color. This is a children's book, and needs to be attractive to children. The book has a wealth of beautifully chosen illustrations, but they are generally poorly reproduced (oddly, the purely photographic illustrations are even grainier than the art reproductions), and not a single one is in color.
And then there is the cover. Scary! Not to mention that poor Beethoven (as shown) has no hair whatsoever. (But maybe that was the point?)
I did think the story was fascinating, and I gained great respect for the two men, Alfredo "Che" Guevara and Ira Brilliant, who acquired the lock of hair and set about trying to honor Beethoven's dying wish by means of it. And the Danish section of the story, and the characters throughout, are fascinating.
In sum: I did like the book, & I enjoyed reading it, but it could have (& should have) been better. A bit more attention to editing and design, and I would have awarded it another star -- maybe even 2.
So, why only three stars?
First, because of a certain apparent carelessness in some of the writing. For instance, in the description of the initial cutting, Beethoven's hair is described as "half-gray," (p.33), whereas later, the authors call it "quite gray." (p. 101) Maybe they do not mean "entirely" when they say "quite," but it does read that way, and it gave me pause. They could save young readers a bit of confusion by making their adjectives match, or, better yet, leaving them out altogether.
A more troubling example occurs on page 82, where the authors describe the initial scientific research on the lock of hair. The current owners of the hair choose Dr. William Walsh to conduct an examination, and he sends samples out to other scientists, including Walter McCrone, whom the authors describe as follows:
It was McCrone who had demonstrated conclusively in the 1970s that the outline of a figure on fabric known as the Shroud of Turin had been painted in the fourteenth century and was not, therefore, the burial cloth of Jesus, as some had claimed, but was an historical hoax instead.
Well! That gave me pause for more than one reason -- not least because I had seen The PBS Special about the Shroud of Turin recently. So, I knew that McCrone's research, though interesting, was not actually conclusive. And the whole topic of the Shroud of Turin is quite (meaning extremely!) controversial, so why drag it into a children's book unnecessarily, especially by means of such a clunky sentence?
Unfortunately, writing like this occasionally mars an otherwise fascinating story.
Episodes of awkward writing aside, there are also problems with the book design. And the main problem is that there is no color. This is a children's book, and needs to be attractive to children. The book has a wealth of beautifully chosen illustrations, but they are generally poorly reproduced (oddly, the purely photographic illustrations are even grainier than the art reproductions), and not a single one is in color.
And then there is the cover. Scary! Not to mention that poor Beethoven (as shown) has no hair whatsoever. (But maybe that was the point?)
I did think the story was fascinating, and I gained great respect for the two men, Alfredo "Che" Guevara and Ira Brilliant, who acquired the lock of hair and set about trying to honor Beethoven's dying wish by means of it. And the Danish section of the story, and the characters throughout, are fascinating.
In sum: I did like the book, & I enjoyed reading it, but it could have (& should have) been better. A bit more attention to editing and design, and I would have awarded it another star -- maybe even 2.
March 22, 2023
ETA (2023): Well, as one of my history professors used to say, history is never static: it must be rewritten based on facts, and new facts can be inconvenient. As an article in the Wall Street Journal today pointed out, the famous Hiller Lock, one of the most famous of the many locks of hair claimed to have been Beethoven's, isn't. New testing shows that it belonged to a woman. And to muddy the waters even more, the five people who had records showing they shared a common ancestor with Ludwig VB, don't. They definitely are related to each other, but not to the composer. Thus lies the problem with genealogy: you don't always get the truth about who Baby Daddy was. (Or, sometimes, who Baby Mama was...although that one is a bit harder to mask.)
It's still an interesting read, but it's going to need a new subtitle and a huge-ass disclaimer now.
______
I really should give this three stars. The author is openly biased, and there are some editing issues. I can't. I'm too much a fan of Beethoven, too much a fan of a good treasure hunt, and too much a sucker for geeky science applied to solve long-standing mysteries to not be biased here.
Chapters about the life and death of Beethoven are alternated with chapters about what happened to the keepsake lock of hair after Beethoven's death until it ended up in the hands of a Arizona realtor and a Mexican-American doctor, both of whom felt so passionately about Beethoven that we can thank them for the existence of the Center for Beethoven Studies as San Jose State University. The dedication of these two men bring together a group of people who otherwise would have never communicated with each other, all intent on solving the mystery of how and why the keepsake traveled from Venice, Austria, Germany, Denmark, London, then to the US and into the hands of scientists intent on learning what caused Beethoven's mysterious illnesses, deafness, and death. We do learn the results of all that testing, but that seems anti-climatic after the stories of the people through whose hands the keepsake passed.
Note: At first, all the references to this being a children's book confused me, but I think I've figured it out. There are two versions of this book by the same author, one for adults and another for the 10-13 age group. Apparently, people are just using the first version they happen upon on GR and attaching their review to it.
It's still an interesting read, but it's going to need a new subtitle and a huge-ass disclaimer now.
______
I really should give this three stars. The author is openly biased, and there are some editing issues. I can't. I'm too much a fan of Beethoven, too much a fan of a good treasure hunt, and too much a sucker for geeky science applied to solve long-standing mysteries to not be biased here.
Chapters about the life and death of Beethoven are alternated with chapters about what happened to the keepsake lock of hair after Beethoven's death until it ended up in the hands of a Arizona realtor and a Mexican-American doctor, both of whom felt so passionately about Beethoven that we can thank them for the existence of the Center for Beethoven Studies as San Jose State University. The dedication of these two men bring together a group of people who otherwise would have never communicated with each other, all intent on solving the mystery of how and why the keepsake traveled from Venice, Austria, Germany, Denmark, London, then to the US and into the hands of scientists intent on learning what caused Beethoven's mysterious illnesses, deafness, and death. We do learn the results of all that testing, but that seems anti-climatic after the stories of the people through whose hands the keepsake passed.
Note: At first, all the references to this being a children's book confused me, but I think I've figured it out. There are two versions of this book by the same author, one for adults and another for the 10-13 age group. Apparently, people are just using the first version they happen upon on GR and attaching their review to it.
February 1, 2015
IN CASE you were just interested in the forensic stuff about the hair, just skip to page 176 (about the middle).
Pages 1 through 175 are a byzantine recounting of the provenance of the hair itself, which is interesting....but the author spends too much time going down rabbit holes. Those rabbit holes are described in excruciating detail and florid prose. Ultimately, the mystery of how the hair got from Vienna to a Danish fishing village remains undetermined.
However, the forensic stuff is fascinating, and it's worth plowing through aforesaid florid prose.
Speculation has run that Beethoven's death was related to opium use (no) and/or syphilis (no, again). I won't give away what was found, but it's certainly interesting and tragic. Beethoven was both profoundly gifted and profoundly cursed.
In spite of terrible pain and sensory failure (not just the deafness), he continued composing up to a few days of his death. The music in him clearly outweighed his pain; his courage drove him to wring as much grandeur as possible from his mind before his body gave out.
We'll never know what was percolating in his mind, undictated. Illness kept him in such debilitating pain that he was frequently, throughout his life, unable to work.
Ultimately, his personal tragedy became his posterity's tragedy.
Pages 1 through 175 are a byzantine recounting of the provenance of the hair itself, which is interesting....but the author spends too much time going down rabbit holes. Those rabbit holes are described in excruciating detail and florid prose. Ultimately, the mystery of how the hair got from Vienna to a Danish fishing village remains undetermined.
However, the forensic stuff is fascinating, and it's worth plowing through aforesaid florid prose.
Speculation has run that Beethoven's death was related to opium use (no) and/or syphilis (no, again). I won't give away what was found, but it's certainly interesting and tragic. Beethoven was both profoundly gifted and profoundly cursed.
In spite of terrible pain and sensory failure (not just the deafness), he continued composing up to a few days of his death. The music in him clearly outweighed his pain; his courage drove him to wring as much grandeur as possible from his mind before his body gave out.
We'll never know what was percolating in his mind, undictated. Illness kept him in such debilitating pain that he was frequently, throughout his life, unable to work.
Ultimately, his personal tragedy became his posterity's tragedy.
May 14, 2015
I do love a good, readble, well-paced nonfiction book on a compelling and odd topic, and this was a very good example of exactly that. Yes, it's ostensibly about how a lock of Beethoven's hair came to be auctioned by Sotheby's, and of course it weaves in a biographical sketch of the composer throughout, but it also takes the reader some pretty amazing and unexpected places: the heroic rescue efforts undertaken by the citizens of Denmark on behalf of their Jewish countrymen during the Holocaust, for example.
Reminded me of other faves in this same vein, like the books of Paul Collins and Rebecca Skloot.
Reminded me of other faves in this same vein, like the books of Paul Collins and Rebecca Skloot.
December 11, 2017
When Beethoven dies, a promising young musician, Peter Hiller, clips a lock of his hair. This book is about the journey of the hair through time until it comes into the hands of some American Beethoven admirers.
These two men agree to have some of the hair tested by scientists to see if they can learn the source of Beethoven’s deafness and other illnesses. What they discover is very interesting.
These two men agree to have some of the hair tested by scientists to see if they can learn the source of Beethoven’s deafness and other illnesses. What they discover is very interesting.
June 29, 2020
An interesting book which traces the path of a lock of Beethoven's hair from his deathbed, through two world wars, ultimately ending up in a lab for analysis. The author includes biographical segments which I enjoyed. It was interesting to read about Beethoven interacting with other notable composers of his time.
February 14, 2013
"Seriously, mama? You are reading a book about a ratty piece of hair." Grace Stringer
December 4, 2020
At Beethoven’s deathbed, a 15-year-old musician named Ferdinand Hiller came to pay his respects to the pronounced composer. In those days, it was routine to snip a lock of hair as a keepsake, and this Hiller did a day after Beethoven's death.
Hiller snipped a lock of hair from the corpse of the world’s greatest composer and placed it in a locket.
This remembrance of the celebrated genius remained encased in this way from 1827 until 1994, when collectors acquired it at a Sotheby’s auction.
By the time he was buried, Beethoven's head had been nearly shorn by the many people who similarly had wanted a lasting memento of the great man. Such was his powerful effect on all those who had heard his music.
For a century, the lock of hair was a treasured Hiller family relic, and perhaps was destined to end up sequestered in a bank vault, until it somehow found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark, during the darkest days of the Second World War. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, who was deeply involved in the effort to help save hundreds of hunted and frightened Jews.
Who gave him the hair, and why? And what was the fate of those refugees, holed up in the attic of Gilleleje's church?
After Fremming's death, his daughter assumed ownership of the lock, and eventually consigned it for sale at Sotheby's, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others instituted a series of complex forensic tests in the hope of finding the probable causes of the composer's chronically bad health, his deafness, and the final demise that Ferdinand Hiller had witnessed all those years ago.
The results, revealed for the first time here, are startling, and are the most compelling explanation yet offered for why one of the foremost musicians the world has ever known was forced to spend much of his life in silence.In Beethoven's Hair, Russell Martin has created a rich historical treasure hunt, an Indiana Jones-like tale of false leads, amazing breakthroughs, and incredible revelations. This unique and fascinating book is a moving testament to the power of music, the lure of relics, the heroism of the Resistance movement, and the brilliance of molecular science.An astonishing tale of one lock of hair and its amazing travels--from nineteenth-century Vienna to twenty-first-century America.
The collectors used the hair to seek a scientific explanation for Beethoven’s talent and lifelong emotional and physical problems, including his deafness. Martin and Nibley’s carefully crafted tale addresses this scientific detective story as well as the lock’s intriguing odyssey from Vienna to Denmark and finally to Arizona.
This book reads like a detective novel. Give it a try.
Hiller snipped a lock of hair from the corpse of the world’s greatest composer and placed it in a locket.
This remembrance of the celebrated genius remained encased in this way from 1827 until 1994, when collectors acquired it at a Sotheby’s auction.
By the time he was buried, Beethoven's head had been nearly shorn by the many people who similarly had wanted a lasting memento of the great man. Such was his powerful effect on all those who had heard his music.
For a century, the lock of hair was a treasured Hiller family relic, and perhaps was destined to end up sequestered in a bank vault, until it somehow found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark, during the darkest days of the Second World War. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, who was deeply involved in the effort to help save hundreds of hunted and frightened Jews.
Who gave him the hair, and why? And what was the fate of those refugees, holed up in the attic of Gilleleje's church?
After Fremming's death, his daughter assumed ownership of the lock, and eventually consigned it for sale at Sotheby's, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others instituted a series of complex forensic tests in the hope of finding the probable causes of the composer's chronically bad health, his deafness, and the final demise that Ferdinand Hiller had witnessed all those years ago.
The results, revealed for the first time here, are startling, and are the most compelling explanation yet offered for why one of the foremost musicians the world has ever known was forced to spend much of his life in silence.In Beethoven's Hair, Russell Martin has created a rich historical treasure hunt, an Indiana Jones-like tale of false leads, amazing breakthroughs, and incredible revelations. This unique and fascinating book is a moving testament to the power of music, the lure of relics, the heroism of the Resistance movement, and the brilliance of molecular science.An astonishing tale of one lock of hair and its amazing travels--from nineteenth-century Vienna to twenty-first-century America.
The collectors used the hair to seek a scientific explanation for Beethoven’s talent and lifelong emotional and physical problems, including his deafness. Martin and Nibley’s carefully crafted tale addresses this scientific detective story as well as the lock’s intriguing odyssey from Vienna to Denmark and finally to Arizona.
This book reads like a detective novel. Give it a try.
February 1, 2026
This story is one that begins with what is known of Beethoven as a young child, young man, his personality and foibles, his genius compositions, and finally his death. Prior to his death a young musician and admirer of his compositions came to visit Beethoven on his death bed. Grieved when Beethoven succumbs to his illness, a common practice was to clip a lock of hair as a memento. This lock of hair is then followed though the years and the various lock's owners up to present day, when it was examined and scientifically tested.
An interesting and easy read
An interesting and easy read
January 31, 2018
I found this book in the Book festival, and it is quite an interesting topic, of which I had never heard before. Since I love a real life mystery, it was a must for me. It seems that when Beethoven died in March 1827, the fifteen-year-old musical protégé Ferdinand Hiller was in Vienna, visiting the composer together with his instructor Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Hiller later wrote:
"He lay, weak and miserable, sighing deeply at intervals. Not a word fell from his lips; sweat stood out on his forehead. His handkerchief not being conveniently at hand, Hummel's wife took her fine cambric handkerchief and dried his face again and again. Never shall I forget the grateful glance with which his broken eyes looked upon her."
Three days later Beethoven died and a day later they went back to pay their respect.
"The two did not remain for long beside the coffin, but before they left, young Hiller asked his teacher if he could cut a lok of the master composer's hair. …Hummel quietly whispered yes to his student, and the two of them were moved by the deep sadness of the moment. Ferdinand Hiller took the scissors he had brought with him, lifted a small lock of Beethoven's long half-gray hair, pulled it away from his head, and cut it free."
This is the story of how the hair travelled through the Hiller family in Germany, through the Second World War and Denmark and ended up in the United States with two Beethoven enthusiasts, Dr Alfredo "Che" Guevara and Ira Brilliant. Circumstances made them find a note in Sotheby's catalogue about the sale of a lock of Beethoven's hair. They used part of it to make forensic tests to find out what ailed Beethoven.
Now starts an investigation into, not only finding out what medical problems Beethoven had, but also to verify where the hair came from. It is truly a fantastic story of dedication and love for something that belonged to one of our greatest composers. They tracked down the hair from Hiller to his children and grandchildren, it travelled to Denmark during the second world war and ended up with a local doctor in the small town of Gilleleje in Denmark, and through his daughter to an auction in London. It is more exciting than any made-up story.
The outcome of the examination of the hair was surprising. Most of the samples contained the normal elements found in hair, but his hair also contained "an average of forty-two times more lead than the control samples did". Walsh, one of the scientist, believed that Beethoven had been "massively poisoned by lead at the time of his death and may have been for decades before". This could also explain his health problems. Of course, in those days, nobody knew how dangerous lead was.
A well-written, pedagogical, not too long book about a real life mystery. The authors mix the mystery with facts about Beethoven's life and deeds. It is exciting and when you are in the middle of the search for the Hiller family, it is difficult to put the book down.
"He lay, weak and miserable, sighing deeply at intervals. Not a word fell from his lips; sweat stood out on his forehead. His handkerchief not being conveniently at hand, Hummel's wife took her fine cambric handkerchief and dried his face again and again. Never shall I forget the grateful glance with which his broken eyes looked upon her."
Three days later Beethoven died and a day later they went back to pay their respect.
"The two did not remain for long beside the coffin, but before they left, young Hiller asked his teacher if he could cut a lok of the master composer's hair. …Hummel quietly whispered yes to his student, and the two of them were moved by the deep sadness of the moment. Ferdinand Hiller took the scissors he had brought with him, lifted a small lock of Beethoven's long half-gray hair, pulled it away from his head, and cut it free."
This is the story of how the hair travelled through the Hiller family in Germany, through the Second World War and Denmark and ended up in the United States with two Beethoven enthusiasts, Dr Alfredo "Che" Guevara and Ira Brilliant. Circumstances made them find a note in Sotheby's catalogue about the sale of a lock of Beethoven's hair. They used part of it to make forensic tests to find out what ailed Beethoven.
Now starts an investigation into, not only finding out what medical problems Beethoven had, but also to verify where the hair came from. It is truly a fantastic story of dedication and love for something that belonged to one of our greatest composers. They tracked down the hair from Hiller to his children and grandchildren, it travelled to Denmark during the second world war and ended up with a local doctor in the small town of Gilleleje in Denmark, and through his daughter to an auction in London. It is more exciting than any made-up story.
The outcome of the examination of the hair was surprising. Most of the samples contained the normal elements found in hair, but his hair also contained "an average of forty-two times more lead than the control samples did". Walsh, one of the scientist, believed that Beethoven had been "massively poisoned by lead at the time of his death and may have been for decades before". This could also explain his health problems. Of course, in those days, nobody knew how dangerous lead was.
A well-written, pedagogical, not too long book about a real life mystery. The authors mix the mystery with facts about Beethoven's life and deeds. It is exciting and when you are in the middle of the search for the Hiller family, it is difficult to put the book down.
March 18, 2018
Because I love nonfiction, because I was a genetics major in college, and because Beethoven is one of my favorite composers, I anticipated that this book would be on my favorites shelf. I thought I'd be unable to put it down and would finish with a sense of satisfaction that it had shed light on all the man's maladies and their effects on his life and work. In reality, there is a small reward there, but the greatest portions of the book cover the provenance of the lock of hair and the people who procured and ultimately possessed it. A great deal of time is devoted to the sketchy period of the locket's provenance, when it was apparently gifted to a Danish doctor who gave aid to a Jew fleeing the gestapo. The story diverts to a huge discourse about Hitler's persecution of the Jews and a Danish fishing village who collaborated to save many of them even at the Danes' own peril. The author spends so much time on this in his tracing of the locket's journey that it actually becomes the main theme of the book. He goes so far as to suggest that Beethoven himself helped save Jewish refugees from the Nazis posthumously. Since that assertion suggests that Dr. Kay Fremming required pay for his help and took the most valuable thing the refugee had as his due, I found that viewpoint offensive. All evidence to the contrary--the Fremmings helped many, never profited from the treasure, never sought any fame from the possession. More likely, the poor Jew knew that locket was one of those objects that is a valuable relic for all humankind due to its historic and artistic nature, not just a family heirloom. He likely recognized that the responsible thing to do would be to relinquish it to another person who would likewise protect it from the Nazis. Anyway, when I purchased Beethoven's Hair, I wasn't in the market for a book about the Holocaust. Eventually, Martin does get to the point and tell us that Beethoven suffered from lead poisoning and apparently did not take much in the way of painkillers other than red wine, which at that time contributed more and more lead to his body. There are also some interesting asides in the book about Beethoven's life, relationships, and interactions with other composers of the period. It took me quite a while to finish the book because what Martin chose as his most important points to elaborate, I found tedious and extraneous to what I'd hoped was the subject matter. I kept favoring other reading material (I usually have several books going at once) over Beethoven's Hair because most of it was disappointing in its presentation. This isn't to say the author did a bad job, but he's very verbose and we aren't on the same page, so to speak.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2013
There is only one answer to my observation that all "Bestseller" books that I have read are extremely poorly written: there must be a list you can pay to get your book put on called the "Bestseller" list. Seriously. Beethoven's Hair, Colapse, Three Cups of Tea, and others, all claim to be "Bestsellers," and they are all pieces of trash. This book is so poorly written that I groaned out loud at some of the sentences. Take this one on page 97 for example:
"The temperature hovered barely above freezing; people's hands and feet went numb; and the place was eerily silent--more than a hundred people packed into the small attic space, saying nothing for hours on end, not even daring to whisper, the only sound the incessant ticking of the clock in the tower, its maddening repetitions seeming to mock the refugees' precarious fate."
Yeah. That's one sentence according to this author.
In summary, my issues with Mr. Martin's writing is that 1. it's way too melodramatic, 2. almost every sentence is a run-on, 3. the book jumps around through time haphazardly, with no discernable structure or reason, and 4. he tries to make the purchase of Beethoven's Hair by the collectors into some monumental event. It's kind of cool, but he plays it up to excess. The results of analyses on the hair are mildly interesting, but not worthy of a whole book.
The most interesting part of the book was when the author forgot all about the hair and talked about the small fishing village of Gilleleje and how they tried to save as many Jews from the Nazis as possible. Now that would be worthy of a whole book. But as soon as he can, Mr. Martin gets back to his melodramic and pointless pontification on things that can not be known. And he repeats these things over and over and over. What a pain. In fact, the writting feels like he was hired by the purchasers of the hair to write a book that strokes their egos as much as possible. That's my guess.
"The temperature hovered barely above freezing; people's hands and feet went numb; and the place was eerily silent--more than a hundred people packed into the small attic space, saying nothing for hours on end, not even daring to whisper, the only sound the incessant ticking of the clock in the tower, its maddening repetitions seeming to mock the refugees' precarious fate."
Yeah. That's one sentence according to this author.
In summary, my issues with Mr. Martin's writing is that 1. it's way too melodramatic, 2. almost every sentence is a run-on, 3. the book jumps around through time haphazardly, with no discernable structure or reason, and 4. he tries to make the purchase of Beethoven's Hair by the collectors into some monumental event. It's kind of cool, but he plays it up to excess. The results of analyses on the hair are mildly interesting, but not worthy of a whole book.
The most interesting part of the book was when the author forgot all about the hair and talked about the small fishing village of Gilleleje and how they tried to save as many Jews from the Nazis as possible. Now that would be worthy of a whole book. But as soon as he can, Mr. Martin gets back to his melodramic and pointless pontification on things that can not be known. And he repeats these things over and over and over. What a pain. In fact, the writting feels like he was hired by the purchasers of the hair to write a book that strokes their egos as much as possible. That's my guess.
April 29, 2009
This is the intriguing story of a lock of Beethoven's hair, cut at his deathbed and preserved by a Viennese musician, which turns up at auction in the 1990's and is scientifically analyzed. The reader learns about Beethoven's life and circumstances, where the lock of hair traveled before ending up in Arizona, and infomation about hair and bone analysis. Notes from the authors at the end discuss the process of researching the book and offer advice to young writers. There is no bibliography, but the reader is advised to seek recommendations from librarians and teachers. There is an index and table of contents.
February 15, 2017
This was really fascinating. A clipped lock of Beethoven's hair was purchased from a Danish Sotheby's auction by two Americans, who then began a sleuthing investigation to figure out how it had landed in Denmark as well as pay for tests on the hair to see if they could determine the cause of Beethoven's decades of multiple health problems and deafness. The book gives us a history of the Vienna music scene in the early 19th century and a little known history of how the Danish people helped the Jews during WWII. And it resolves all the speculations about the source of Beethoven's many health issues. On the surface it sounds like a dry story, but it was quite engrossing.
May 12, 2020
So much unnecessary information. This could have been condensed into a 100 pages or written as a lengthy scientific/historical article. Too many names to keep and remember, too many insignificant details, too much worshiping of Beethoven (Chopin also thought so) and too damn long! I’m glad I read it but I definitively skimmed sections. Nevertheless, getting to the root of his maladies by examining the literal root of his hair was fascinating and parts of the book were good but again, it was stretched, empty-filled and it annoyed me.
P.S. I am a classical pianist and reading this made me so excited until I read-on and then my excitement waned.
P.S. I am a classical pianist and reading this made me so excited until I read-on and then my excitement waned.
July 23, 2017
Terrible. I can tell the author put much time into the book, but as someone who greatly enjoys the subject of music history I was bored almost to tears. There are pages of recap, repeated unanswered questions, suspect form, and many cases of what my English teachers called "wordiness."
Avoid this book. Your time could be better spent listening to Beethoven's music, and you would probably learn more concrete facts about his life that way.
Avoid this book. Your time could be better spent listening to Beethoven's music, and you would probably learn more concrete facts about his life that way.
March 20, 2016
I found this book to be a fascinating examination of the (1) provenance of a significant relic (analogous to that of a revered religious saint) and (2) possible cause(s) of Beethoven's deafness, as well as his other debilitating afflictions, I light of 21st century analytical tools. It had aspects of a scientific thriller, which I would love to have seen developed to a greater extent.
August 10, 2023
The book starts with the opening of a locket of hair at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, then alternates between vignettes from the composer’s bio and the modern search for the origin of the locket. The hair, it turns out, was snipped from Beethoven’s head as his body lay in repose. The “guilty” party: a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller, son of a merchant who’d changed his surname from Hildesheim to conceal his Jewish identity.
The Danish town of Gillileje, where the hair turned up in the 1990s, had been the scene of a rescue of Jews at the end of the war, part of a nationwide effort. Denmark had surrendered to Germany early on, essentially without a shot, and had then been subject to a lenient occupation. At war’s close, the losing Nazis attempted to carry out as much of the “Final Solution” as possible, rounding up Danish Jews and those from other parts of Europe who had found a relatively safe haven there. The Danes, rare for occupied lands at the time, considered it a patriotic duty to protect their Jewish population. As a testament to this fact alone, the book is worth reading.
It’s also worthwhile for the Beethoven biography, even though it might make his fans uncomfortable: the curmudgeonly artist did nearly everything possible to sabotage his relations with friends, relatives, and patrons. Somewhat excusable, however, given his many ailments—and the terrible medical advice he received on treating them. One can’t help feel sympathy for the man when reading how he was so distraught over his hearing loss that he considered suicide as early as 1802 (living in the Vienna suburb of Heiligenstadt, which I have visited). Yet he dedicated himself to his art for another quarter-century, leaving us with, among other works, his glorious Ninth Symphony.
I’ll wind up to avoid too many spoilers, but I will remark that the book ends on a positive note about a doctor, “Che” Guevara, who cared enough about the musical genius’s legend to pursue research into the causes of his death, and Ira Brilliant, who furthered those endeavors financially and established San José State University’s Beethoven Center.
The Danish town of Gillileje, where the hair turned up in the 1990s, had been the scene of a rescue of Jews at the end of the war, part of a nationwide effort. Denmark had surrendered to Germany early on, essentially without a shot, and had then been subject to a lenient occupation. At war’s close, the losing Nazis attempted to carry out as much of the “Final Solution” as possible, rounding up Danish Jews and those from other parts of Europe who had found a relatively safe haven there. The Danes, rare for occupied lands at the time, considered it a patriotic duty to protect their Jewish population. As a testament to this fact alone, the book is worth reading.
It’s also worthwhile for the Beethoven biography, even though it might make his fans uncomfortable: the curmudgeonly artist did nearly everything possible to sabotage his relations with friends, relatives, and patrons. Somewhat excusable, however, given his many ailments—and the terrible medical advice he received on treating them. One can’t help feel sympathy for the man when reading how he was so distraught over his hearing loss that he considered suicide as early as 1802 (living in the Vienna suburb of Heiligenstadt, which I have visited). Yet he dedicated himself to his art for another quarter-century, leaving us with, among other works, his glorious Ninth Symphony.
I’ll wind up to avoid too many spoilers, but I will remark that the book ends on a positive note about a doctor, “Che” Guevara, who cared enough about the musical genius’s legend to pursue research into the causes of his death, and Ira Brilliant, who furthered those endeavors financially and established San José State University’s Beethoven Center.
November 24, 2023
A wordy, and I mean wordy, book. When Ludvig van Beethoven, the composer and pianist, died on 27th March 1827, a flurry of friends came to visit the corpse before it was interred and snipped off locks of Beethoven’s hair. This book tells the odyssey of one such lock allegedly seized by Ferdinand Hiller. The was preserved in a locket. Russell Martin researches in detail, sometimes excruciating detail, the convoluted odyssey of this locket. It reached the town of Gilleleje, when the town was in tumult, altruistic Danes helping Jewish refugees get out of Nazi-occupied Denmark. The, or at least a, locket came into the ownership of a local doctor who bequeathed it to her daughter. The daughter put it up for sale. It was bought in 1994 by Brilliant and Guevara. In 1995 the locket was opened; some hairs were consigned to forensic examination. Some hairs had follicles attached which might allow DNA testing.
The book, according to Amazon, was published in 2001. The most recent reference in the book itself is to March 2001. Martin asserts that analysis of the hair showed a high concentration of lead and the juices deduces that Beethoven’s chronic illness was at least partly due to chronic lead poisoning. The results of the analysis of fragments of Beethoven’s skull had not been released but Martin implies there was lead in the bone also. DNA testing had not yet been done.
Since then, shockingly and devastatingly, DNA analysis of the Hiller lock showed that it came from a WOMAN, who had genes found in Ashkenazi Jewish populations. DNA analysis of five other samples of Beethoven’s hair with better provenance found traces of hepatitis B and indicated a genetic predisposition to liver disease.
More detailed analysis of the lead content of two of the “Hiller hairs” revealed peaks of high lead concentration occurred along the length of the hair roughly consistent with the times of medical treatment during Beethoven’s last months, which analysis is not consistent with chronic lead poisoning.
Oh dear, an immense labor of love expended on a deceitful paramour.
The book, according to Amazon, was published in 2001. The most recent reference in the book itself is to March 2001. Martin asserts that analysis of the hair showed a high concentration of lead and the juices deduces that Beethoven’s chronic illness was at least partly due to chronic lead poisoning. The results of the analysis of fragments of Beethoven’s skull had not been released but Martin implies there was lead in the bone also. DNA testing had not yet been done.
Since then, shockingly and devastatingly, DNA analysis of the Hiller lock showed that it came from a WOMAN, who had genes found in Ashkenazi Jewish populations. DNA analysis of five other samples of Beethoven’s hair with better provenance found traces of hepatitis B and indicated a genetic predisposition to liver disease.
More detailed analysis of the lead content of two of the “Hiller hairs” revealed peaks of high lead concentration occurred along the length of the hair roughly consistent with the times of medical treatment during Beethoven’s last months, which analysis is not consistent with chronic lead poisoning.
Oh dear, an immense labor of love expended on a deceitful paramour.
February 25, 2026
I found this book difficult to get through despite it being well under 200 pages. When I picked up this book I was unaware that there is an adult version of it, simply titled “Beethoven’s Hair”, and that I have in my possession the junior fiction version. So there is my disclaimer, for all I know my complaints may be irrelevant in the adult version of this book. But I read this one. So here we go.
The story of Beethoven himself was compelling. I enjoyed learning a bit about his early life and how he didn’t fit in socially or with his own family. The book jumps from present day/hair journey to when Beethoven was alive. Back and forth. It felt choppy and was hard to follow in some places. I was expecting more things to be said about the scientific discoveries —the book seemed to be setting it up for multiple big discoveries. But, no. Just one discovery, which to be fair was a significant one. Things felt rushed and spliced together. I think I would have enjoyed this book more had it been written in a two part format. Have a little compelling snippet of the hair story (see what I did there?) in the beginning to get the reader hooked then give a history of Beethoven’s life. Followed by the Hair’s journey from Beethoven’s head to the museum it ended up in and everything in between. There is such a good transition opportunity too with Beethoven’s life ending at his funeral but the adventure of a piece of him living on through the centuries, beginning with the lock that was cut at the funeral. An end and a beginning.
I’m frustrated because this seems like a very compelling story, but in my opinion, it was executed poorly. There were too many characters through the hair’s journey for such a small book.
I bought this book at a used book sale, and let’s just say, I will no longer hold the title of owner of The Mysteries of Beethoven’s Hair.
The story of Beethoven himself was compelling. I enjoyed learning a bit about his early life and how he didn’t fit in socially or with his own family. The book jumps from present day/hair journey to when Beethoven was alive. Back and forth. It felt choppy and was hard to follow in some places. I was expecting more things to be said about the scientific discoveries —the book seemed to be setting it up for multiple big discoveries. But, no. Just one discovery, which to be fair was a significant one. Things felt rushed and spliced together. I think I would have enjoyed this book more had it been written in a two part format. Have a little compelling snippet of the hair story (see what I did there?) in the beginning to get the reader hooked then give a history of Beethoven’s life. Followed by the Hair’s journey from Beethoven’s head to the museum it ended up in and everything in between. There is such a good transition opportunity too with Beethoven’s life ending at his funeral but the adventure of a piece of him living on through the centuries, beginning with the lock that was cut at the funeral. An end and a beginning.
I’m frustrated because this seems like a very compelling story, but in my opinion, it was executed poorly. There were too many characters through the hair’s journey for such a small book.
I bought this book at a used book sale, and let’s just say, I will no longer hold the title of owner of The Mysteries of Beethoven’s Hair.
July 20, 2019
Very interesting exploration of Beethoven's career and health, and what happened to a lock of his hair which was cut after his death. More than half the book discusses what happened to some of his hair after it was cut by 15 year-old Ferdinand Hiller. Hiller had the hair enclosed in a locket, as was the custom in 19th century Europe, and many years later gave it to his son. Somehow, the locket ended up in the possession of a family in the small fishing village of Gilleleje Denmark, and was sold to real estate magnate Ira Brilliant and urological surgeon Alfredo Guevara, two Beethoven enthusiasts. The locket with most of the hairs are donated to the Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University in California. The rest of the hairs remain in the private possession of Dr. Guevarra, who gives some of them to scientists for testing to learn what light they can shed on Beethoven's health problems.
The book tracks the history of the locket in as much detail as the Russell Martin can trace. He even explains the false leads and why they seemed worth following up. In the end, some holes remain in the story, which will probably be never filled in because those who participated in the events and the witnesses have all died.
It's a very interesting book, but I often had trouble following the story because of the author's style. Martin seems to believe that the longer the sentence, the better. Once a sentence exceeds thirty words, its time to end it. And NO sentence should need three semi-colons!
The book tracks the history of the locket in as much detail as the Russell Martin can trace. He even explains the false leads and why they seemed worth following up. In the end, some holes remain in the story, which will probably be never filled in because those who participated in the events and the witnesses have all died.
It's a very interesting book, but I often had trouble following the story because of the author's style. Martin seems to believe that the longer the sentence, the better. Once a sentence exceeds thirty words, its time to end it. And NO sentence should need three semi-colons!
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