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Detail for the Book:
"Beethoven_s Hair - An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved" Reserve this item (sends an e-mail)
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Category: History
Author: Martin, Russell
Copyright: 2001
Publishing Company: Broadway Books
Media: Book
Number of Pages: 276
Description: Ludwig van Beethoven lay dying in 1827, a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller came to pay his respects. In the days after Beethoven_s death, Hiller snipped a lock of the great composer_s hair as a keepsake. This seemingly innocuous relic was passed down for more than a century through Hiller_s family, until, during the Second World War, it somehow found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, who was deeply involved in the effort to give aid to hundreds of frightened and hunted Jews. Who gave him the hair, and why? And was made Dr. Fremming so reticent about those terrible war years?
After his death, Fremming_s daughter assumed ownership of the lock, and eventually put it up for sale at Sotheby_s, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others have instituted DNA and other tests on the hair in the hope of revealing the probable causes of the composer_s famously bad health, his deafness, and his final demise, witnessed by Ferdinand Hiller all those years ago. The results, revealed for the first timie here, are startling.
Beethoven_s Hair is a rich historical treasure hunt, a tale of false leads, amazing break-throughs, and incredible revelations. Russell Martin has created a moving testament to the power of music, the lure of relics, the heroism of resistance of the Nazis, and the brilliance of molecular science.
