Books by and about Alec Wilder

  • Books by Alec Wilder
  • WILDER, ALEC, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, ed. James T. Maher (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972), 536 pp.
  • WILDER, ALEC, Letters I Never Mailed: Clues to a Life (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975), 243 pp. New edition annotated by David Demsey (Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2005).
  • WILDER, ALEC, Lullabies and Night Songs, ed. William Engvick, ill. Maurice Sendak (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), 78 pp.
  • Books about Alec Wilder
  • STONE, DESMOND, Alec Wilder in Spite of Himself (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 352 pp.
  • BALLIETT, WHITNEY, Alec Wilder and His Friends (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1974; New York: Da Capo Press, 1983), 205 pp.
  • DEMSEY, DAVID and RONALD PRATHER, Alec Wilder: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1993), 274 pp.

    • Alec Wilder: A Bio-Bibliography by David Demsey and Ronald Prather

    The work of the American composer Alec Wilder (1907-1980) combined the elements of the jazz, popular, and classical idioms. Uncompromising and intensely original, he was a true innovator in every phase of composition that he chose to pursue. In addition, his writings on music and life are penetrating, witty, and insightful. Though his compositions number in the several hundreds, covering every medium from chamber to orchestral music to opera and popular song, they have been largely hidden away from potential researchers and performers, due in no small part to the idiosyncratic nature of the composer himself. He often chose to give away his manuscripts as gifts to friends or to performers whom he admired, rarely keeping copies or documenting the details. It is hoped that the information organized and annotated in this volume will bring Wilder's work to a wider audience and serve as a resource for those seeking more information by and about this unique American composer. (From the Preface)