This month marks the 235th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. There’s a huge shelf-ful of books about the composer, but this year Edmund Morris, the celebrated biographer of American presidents, wrote his own short life of Beethoven. Morris won the Pulitzer Prize for one of his books about Theodore Roosevelt, and is the author of Dutch, the controversial biography of Ronald Reagan. Kurt spoke with to Morris about how a kid in British East Africa fell in love with Beethoven.
The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?