Gustav Kobbé

Gustav Kobbé (March 4, 1857 – July 27, 1918) was an American music critic and author, best known for his guide to the operas, The Complete Opera Book, first published (posthumously) in the United States in 1919 and the United Kingdom in 1922.

Life and career Kobbé was born in March 1857 in New York City, to (1802–1881) and Sarah Lord Sistare Kobbé. In 1882, he married Carolyn Wheeler.

He made his career in literary and newspaper work, and contributed articles on musical and dramatic subjects to the leading magazines and periodicals. His hobby was sailing, and it was while he was out in the Great South Bay off Bay Shore, New York, in July 1918, that a seaplane, coming down for a landing, struck his boat and killed him instantly.

Literary work Kobbé began his literary career as co-editor of the Musical Review. He was on the staff of the The Sun in New York in 1881, Plays for Amateurs (1892) My Rosary, and Other Poems (1896) Miriam (1898) Signora, a Child of the Opera House, a novel (1902) Famous Actors & Actresses And Their Homes (1903) Wagner's Music-Dramas Analyzed (1904), with which were combined his other later Wagner works The Loves of Great Composers (1905) Wagner and His Isolde (1905) Opera Singers (1905, sixth edition revised, 1913) Famous American Songs (1906) How to Appreciate Music (New York: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1906) The Pianolist (1907) Portrait Gallery of Great Composers (1911) A Tribute to the Dog-Including the Famous Tribute by Senator Vest (1910 & 1911) Modern Women (1916) The Complete Opera Book (1919 & 1922), continued for several editions by the Earl of Harewood He was editor of the Lotus Magazine from 1909 to 1918. His grandson, Francis Thorne, is a well known composer. Through his daughter, Virginia, Kobbé is the great-great-grandfather of actor Justin Theroux.