James Whipple Miller Knihy

Nadia Boulanger: War Years in America and Her Last Decades is the first biographical study of the last half of the great French master teacher's life. The book includes 227 letters exchanged over four decades between Boulanger and her close friend and disciple Ruth Robbins. From this unique epistolary record between a master teacher and her student, we gain deep and new insights into Boulanger's beliefs and feelings, and how they changed as she faced the challenges of aging. Another intimate perspective on Boulanger comes from her favorite post-war student Idil Biret who vividly describes her resistance to Boulanger's rigidity.