For this second installment marking the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s birth, we will briefly survey the various biographies available to the collector and music lover. Though a number of these are out-of-print, they can be had on the second-hand market fairly easily, if not always in an original first edition. “Desert Island Rachmaninoff”, which was originally scheduled for this issue, will appear in the Fall edition instead.
Though not a comprehensive listing, the titles discussed below constitute the lion’s share of Rachmaninoff biographies published in English since the late 1930s.