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Book Summary:
Beethoven is a name we all know. He was one of the greatest composers of all time. As some of us might remember , Beethoven had health issues, which plagued him and his work. The health issues caused mood swings that people did not understand. They thought him strange and most did not like being in his company. It was customary that when someone died, who was famous, people snipped off sections of their hair as a memento. A young child who had meet Beethoven, prior to his death, Hiller had visited Beethoven's death- bed and took a snippet of his hair. He had it placed in a locked, which was passed down in his family. Because of the distrust and dislike of Jewish people, Hiller, and his family had to leave Austria for safety reasons. They were believed to have moved to Denmark, and hide out in a small town in their church. The locket of hair ended up in a Doctor's family, and no one is really sure why. It is rumored that the locket was given for safe keeping, and with the intent of returning after the war. This doctor and his wife did not have any children of their own but adopted a girl, who did not know of the hair until she had grown. As an adult, she was in dire need of money and needed to sell, and it was placed on the market from Southerby's in London. In Arizona, there was a collector who wanted something that was more personal than other items he had in his collection. A friend heard about the sale and bid on the hair. The two new co-owners had the hair tested to verify it was Beethoven's and then ran tests to see if they could figure out what had plagued Beethoven and his health. The result was a massive amount of lead was found in his hair. Lead poisoning can have the same symptoms as the ones Beethoven had died with. These two gentlemen and their scientists had full filled a wish that Beethoven had, that someone day, people would understand the reason behind his strange behaviors.
Beethoven is a name we all know. He was one of the greatest composers of all time. As some of us might remember , Beethoven had health issues, which plagued him and his work. The health issues caused mood swings that people did not understand. They thought him strange and most did not like being in his company. It was customary that when someone died, who was famous, people snipped off sections of their hair as a memento. A young child who had meet Beethoven, prior to his death, Hiller had visited Beethoven's death- bed and took a snippet of his hair. He had it placed in a locked, which was passed down in his family. Because of the distrust and dislike of Jewish people, Hiller, and his family had to leave Austria for safety reasons. They were believed to have moved to Denmark, and hide out in a small town in their church. The locket of hair ended up in a Doctor's family, and no one is really sure why. It is rumored that the locket was given for safe keeping, and with the intent of returning after the war. This doctor and his wife did not have any children of their own but adopted a girl, who did not know of the hair until she had grown. As an adult, she was in dire need of money and needed to sell, and it was placed on the market from Southerby's in London. In Arizona, there was a collector who wanted something that was more personal than other items he had in his collection. A friend heard about the sale and bid on the hair. The two new co-owners had the hair tested to verify it was Beethoven's and then ran tests to see if they could figure out what had plagued Beethoven and his health. The result was a massive amount of lead was found in his hair. Lead poisoning can have the same symptoms as the ones Beethoven had died with. These two gentlemen and their scientists had full filled a wish that Beethoven had, that someone day, people would understand the reason behind his strange behaviors.
APA Reference of Book:
Martin, R., & Nibley, L. (2009). The mysteries of Beethoven's hair. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
Impressions:
There are several book covers to this book. All of them are interesting and eye catching.
There are several book covers to this book. All of them are interesting and eye catching.
I love history, and this book caught my attention. I did not know there was any mystery surrounding Beethoven and his hair. I like this book. Mr. Martin did a great job of weaving the past and more current story lines. The book covers Beethoven's life, his struggles and his music and his health issues. Mr. Martin also weaves the history of the hair being snipped after his death and how the hair was put in a keepsake locket and passed through the family and into strangers hands. The current owners, in Arizona and Texas ( co-owners) are huge fans of Beethoven and have a wide variety of collections of his work. They had the hair DNA tested to validate that it is actually Beethovens and then ran tests to see what minerals were in his hair. They discovered that Beethoven had a large amount of lead in his system at the time of his death. This led the doctors and scientists who ran the tests, to understand and diagnosis Beethovens pains and symptoms. Before Beethoven's death, he had written a letter to his two brothers, were he said he wanted people to understand him and what was wrong with him. He never mailed the letter and it was found in his belongings after his death.Beethoven's symptoms were stomach issues, constipation, diarrhea, his wild mood swings. While he was in the hospital his doctor draining the extra fluid in his stomach. He drained him 3 different times and there was a lot of fluids. Beethoven went into a coma, and he awoke briefly during a thunderstorm, then passed away.
I had never known about this story, this mystery, and the amazing history that this book followed.
Professional Review:
Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved
Ludwig van Beethoven lay dying in 1827, a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller came to pay his respects to the great composer. In those days, it was customary to snip a lock of hair as a keepsake, and this Hiller did a day after Beethoven's death. By the time he was buried, Beethoven's head had been nearly shorn by the many people who similarly had wanted a lasting memento of the great man. Such was his powerful effect on all those who had heard his music.
For a century, the lock of hair was a treasured Hiller family relic, and perhaps was destined to end up sequestered in a bank vault, until it somehow found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark, during the darkest days of the Second World War. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, who was deeply involved in the effort to help save hundreds of hunted and frightened Jews. Who gave him the hair, and why? And what was the fate of those refugees, holed up in the attic of Gilleleje's church?
After Fremming's death, his daughter assumed ownership of the lock, and eventually consigned it for sale at Sotheby's, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others instituted a series of complex forensic tests in the hope of finding the probable causes of the composer's chronically bad health, his deafness, and the final demise that Ferdinand Hiller had witnessed all those years ago. The results, revealed for the first time here, are startling, and are the most compelling explanation yet offered for why one of the foremost musicians the world has ever known was forced to spend much of his life in silence.
In Beethoven's Hair, Russell Martin has created a rich historical treasure hunt, an Indiana Jones-like tale of false leads, amazing breakthroughs, and incredible revelations. This unique and fascinating book is a moving testament to the power of music, the lure of relics, the heroism of the Resistance movement, and the brilliance of molecular science.
An astonishing tale of one lock of hair and its amazing travels--from nineteenth-century Vienna to twenty-first-century America.
For a century, the lock of hair was a treasured Hiller family relic, and perhaps was destined to end up sequestered in a bank vault, until it somehow found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark, during the darkest days of the Second World War. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, who was deeply involved in the effort to help save hundreds of hunted and frightened Jews. Who gave him the hair, and why? And what was the fate of those refugees, holed up in the attic of Gilleleje's church?
After Fremming's death, his daughter assumed ownership of the lock, and eventually consigned it for sale at Sotheby's, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others instituted a series of complex forensic tests in the hope of finding the probable causes of the composer's chronically bad health, his deafness, and the final demise that Ferdinand Hiller had witnessed all those years ago. The results, revealed for the first time here, are startling, and are the most compelling explanation yet offered for why one of the foremost musicians the world has ever known was forced to spend much of his life in silence.
In Beethoven's Hair, Russell Martin has created a rich historical treasure hunt, an Indiana Jones-like tale of false leads, amazing breakthroughs, and incredible revelations. This unique and fascinating book is a moving testament to the power of music, the lure of relics, the heroism of the Resistance movement, and the brilliance of molecular science.
An astonishing tale of one lock of hair and its amazing travels--from nineteenth-century Vienna to twenty-first-century America.
Beethoven's Hair. (2008, February). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126669.Beethoven_s_Hair
Library Uses:
This book could be used for biographies and science. The tests ran 100 plus years after his death, is amazing and interesting. The history in this book is also another way for students to learn history without coming from a history book.
This book could be used for biographies and science. The tests ran 100 plus years after his death, is amazing and interesting. The history in this book is also another way for students to learn history without coming from a history book.
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