THE GITiLflOOD OF CLARA SCHUMANN CLARA WIECK AND HER TIME BY FLORENCE MAY AT7THOR OF THE LIFE OF JOHANNES BRAHMS WITH PORTRAIT LONDON EDWABD ABNOLD 1912 All rights reserved. PREFACE TN placing before English-speaking readers an account of the --girlhood of the famous pianist whose art and personality are vividly remembered by the older generation of the music lovers of to-day, I can in no wise claim that I am able to offer any hitherto unpublished particulars of biographical interest. For the main facts of that portion of my work which deals with the personal events of Clara Wiecks life I am indebted to the first volume of Berthold Litzmanns Clara Schumann, ein Kunstlerleben three volumes, which, founded on the diary and correspondence of the great artist, is, from the purely biographical point of view, exhaustive. There is, however, another standpoint from which Fran Schumanns early career may be studied one that has been left unconsidered by Litz mann and that was, perhaps,...