Glenn Gould: A Life And Variations

by Otto Friedrich

Gould's piano recordings are among the bestselling classical albums of all time. This is the first comprehensive and authoritative biography of the controversial and enigmatic musician. 8-page photo insert.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Classical Music, Biography Memoir

441 pages, Hardcover

First published April 22, 1989

About the author

Otto Friedrich was born in Boston and graduated from Harvard, where his father was a political science professor. He took a while to find his literary stride. His career took him from the copy desk at Stars and Stripes to a top writing job at Time, with stops in between with the United Press in London and Paris and with The Daily News and Newsweek in New York.

But it was the seven years he spent with The Saturday Evening Post, including four as its last managing editor, that established Mr. Friedrich as a writer to be reckoned with.

When the venerable magazine folded in 1969, Mr. Friedrich, who had seen the end coming and kept meticulous notes, delineated its demise in a book, 'Decline and Fall," which was published by Harper & Row the next year. Widely hailed as both an engaging and definitive account of corporate myopia, the book, which won a George Polk Memorial Award, is still used as a textbook by both journalism and business schools, his daughter said.

From then on, Mr. Friedrich, who had tried his hand as a novelist in the 1950's and 60's and written a series of children's books with his wife, Priscilla Broughton, wrote nonfiction, turning out an average of one book every two years.

They include "Clover: A Love Story," a 1979 biography of Mrs. Henry Adams; "City of Nets: Hollywood in the 1940's" (1986); "Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations," (1989); "Olympia: Paris in the Age of Manet," (1992), and "Blood and Iron," a study of the Von Moltke family of Germany that is being published this fall.

He wrote his books, as well as reams of freelance articles and book reviews, while holding down a full-time job with Time that required him to write in a distinct style far different from the one he used at home.

Mr. Friedrich, who joined Time as a senior editor in 1971 and retired in 1990 after a decade as a senior writer, wrote 40 major cover stories, the magazine said yesterday, as well as hundreds of shorter pieces, all of them produced on an old-fashioned Royal typewriter that he was given special dispensation to continue using long after the magazine converted to computers.

Mrs. Lucas, portraying her father as a New England moralist whose life and literary interests reflected his disenchantment with much of 20th-century culture, noted that his aptitude for anachronism did not end with typewriters. "We have five rotary telephones in this house," she said.

In addition to pursuing his eclectic interests into print, Mr. Friedrich also had a knack for turning his own life into art. When he tried to grow roses, the record of his failure became a book, "The Rose Garden" (1972). When relatives were stricken with schizophrenia, his frustration drove him to produce an exhaustive study of insanity, "Going Crazy" (1976).

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was intrigued by two things regarding this book: The subject matter of Glenn Gould, who I think is great and the fact that the author of "City of Nets" wrote the biography. And I think it's a great bio on one of the great music artists of the 20th Century. Eccentric as hell, but what a creative mind and talent.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are pros and cons to this biography. For me, the parts I like the best are when Friedrich directly quotes people he interviews, letters Gould wrote, and things he found in the archive. Friedrich was the first biographer to write about Gould after 1982, and so he was really the lucky first researcher to explore the GG papers in the archive. His style of writing can make for a less elegant read than other biographies, but to me it felt very honest and it certainly showed that Friedrcich took his research seriously and did a thorough job.

My biggest criticism is when Friedrich felt the need to assert his opinion, which is funny, because in one chapter he mentions the relentlesly mean reviews of Glenn’s concerts and he literally says the reviewers felt “the need to assert their own personalities.” It really irked me when, peppered throughout this book, Friedrich felt the need to do the same. For an author who delved so deeply into facts, it was very annoying that he also devoted so many pages to making grand psychological and personal assumptions about Gould, that were completely and utterly not based on any facts at all. For example: perhaps he was gay, because he named his cars????? Friedrich also engages in a lot of "Glenn felt this and thought that"- based on absolutely NOTHING, while also making strange statements like "no one knows why..." when in actual video or audio footage Glenn himself answers these mysteries. I think this book is important, but please do more exploration of Glenn Gould the person to judge for yourself, and not take what Friedrich states here as a given.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glenn Gould was a piano virtuoso who inspired his fans to almost religious fervor. Ironically, he hated the concert stage and left it forever when he was 31 years old. A true eccentric, he was a hypochondriac who lived in solitude and referred to himself as "the last Puritan", but played the piano with a passion that bordered on the erotic. He was extremely intelligent and a thoughtful commentator on music, past and present, as well as an advocate of the technology of recording. Otto Friedrich captures this strange life in his stylish and readable biography. The volume spans Gould's brief but spectacular career and provides insight into his abilities as author, teacher, and lecturer; all while providing insight into his public and private life as a performer of genius.

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Canadian pianist, who loves music more than his life. Inspiring, yet heart-breaking. Gould is more than just a brilliant pianist, I enjoyed his philosophies on music and life. And obviously, there is more to life than just the piano. To look after yourself is perhaps the greatest challenge for everyone.

[Cliff Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and not over dramatised. The list of Glenn's concert Programmes were informative since no other biography shared that information. It also helps that the author wasn't head over heels for Glenn. This book reaffirms my love for Glenn Gould and that no other pianist moves me more than this iconoclast.

[Peeet · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you play Bach on the piano or just like Gould´s famous interpretations, read this book! Otto Friedrich portrais this eccentric, bizarre but ingenius man appropriately.

Glenn Gould is a truely inspiring person and he gets even more after you read this book!

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and sensitive account of Glenn Gould's life. Friedrich covers all the fascinating aspects of Gould, while still demonstrating that he was just a human.

[Vien Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great biography of Glenn Gould. I have a greater respect for both Otto Friedrich and Glenn Gould