Friday, November 24, 1978.

If we write symphonies, Franz, then let us stop contrasting one theme

with another . . . We should just spin a melodic line until it can be spun
no farther; but on no account drama!

—Cosima Wagner’s Diaries.

I was a twenty-four-year-old employee at The Franklin Institute in

Philadelphia. I had the day off. The previous day had been
Thanksgiving. I trooped down to Wanamaker’s Department Store
in center city and browsed the book department. The store had
received a shipment of books, The Diaries of Cosima Wagner,
Volume 1. Cosima Wagner, wife of the composer and daughter of
pianist and composer, Franz Liszt, recorded each day of her life
with Wagner from the year 1869 till Wagner’s death in 1883.

Wagner and his father-in-law, Liszt (only two years Wagner’s

senior), shared the special fraternal bond of a lifelong friendship.
They would spend hours alone together—playing cards, musing
on the symphonies they both aspired to write, bemoaning the
ways of the world—with Wagner referring to Liszt as “Brother
Franz.”

Years before, I had read in The New York Times that publishers had
begun preparing an English-language edition of the Diaries. I had
eagerly awaited the book’s release. It was a massive editorial
project that involved impressive historical annotation. I had to
buy a copy! I ended up reading the book cover to cover. It took
me until the end of the year—five weeks—to read the entire
book, which was 1,160 pages. I impatiently awaited the issue of
volume two, but I was to wait five years, till 1983, when the
English-language edition was published.