Intimate Letters

In the final ten years of his life, the Czech composer Leoš Janáček sent a steady stream of letters to Kamila Stösslová, a woman who was much younger than he was and whom he hoped to marry. John Tyrrell, a leading authority on Janáček's music, has translated and edited a large portion of this correspondence.

The volume adds a day-by-day record of the pair's meetings, an explanation of the letters' many sensual allusions, and a group of photographs, most of which have rarely been seen. Together these pieces show the private world behind the work of a composer now counted among the great opera writers of the twentieth century.

Readers interested in Janáček's operas such as Jenůfa and The Cunning Little Vixen, or in the personal lives of major composers, will find here a close look at his emotions and daily concerns in his last years.