The letters of Samuel Wesley : professional and social correspondence, 1797-1837 /

Samuel Wesley, son of Charles Wesley, was a prolific correspondent. This volume brings together for the first time all the surviving social and professional letters that he wrote from age 31 (when he returned from the country to London) to his death, plus family letters on musical topics, totaling about half his surviving correspondence. A brief chronology and biography provide a helpful framework for the letters, which are thoroughly annotated. The volume complements Michael Kassler and Philip Olleson's Samuel Wesley (1766-1837): A Source Book (2001), which provides additional documentation and summarizes letters to Wesley. Wesley rejected Methodism for Roman Catholicism, led an eccentric and sometimes scandalous life, and suffered from unstable mental health that resulted in an often-precarious musical career. He was active at different times as a composer, organist, writer, and editor. His correspondence, which includes letters to Charles Burney, Vincent Novello, and other London musicians, illuminates Wesley's particular interests (such as the music of J.S. Bach and the Fitzwilliam collection) as well as the practical business of a performing, publishing, and teaching musician in early-19th-century London. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. J. Girdham Saginaw Valley State University