Green’s study is more than a biography of an Anglo-African composer.The first comprehensive study of Coleridge-Taylor’s life for almost a century, it reveals how class-ridden Britain could embrace even the most unlikely of cultural icons.

Black Mahler dramatically brings to life the true story of all but forgotten, English composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912). Born to a white mother and black father and raised in the London suburb of Croydon, Coleridge's titanic, choral trilogy, 'Hiawatha' makes this funny, generous and modest young man a worldwide sensation - overnight. Although hailed a cultural hero by African-Americans, Coleridge struggles against financial ruin, personal tragedy and seismic obstacles throughout his short life. Along the way, he unites a world. This moving, human life story will haunt the memory long after the final page is turned.

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Excerpt from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Musician: His Life and Letters Good excuse indeed must he have who seeks to draw aside the veil that every man places between the world and the sanctuary of his personal life. Particularly is this the case where such men as coleridge-taylor are concerned. When one remembers his disposition, his dislike of public adulation, his unwillingness to discuss his work or him self; when one remembers him in the artistes' room, waving aside with a word of smiling thanks the compli ments which were very Often showered upon him, and turning the conversation immediately to other and im personal channels; when one remembers, after his first great work had been received with unqualified enthusiasm by a large audience, that he crept away unnoticed from the hall of the Royal College of Music in order to escape con gratulation - the need for excuse seems more pronounced than ever. Fame he could not be said to have despised he had the natural and right - minded desire of every worker for a sound public appreciation of his work - but its direct expression from the lips of others he always avoided. Wrapped as he was in his art, there was never a man less self-centred. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Harry Burleigh, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers followed Taylor's lead, feeling that the time was right for them to manifest their cultural heritage. Langston Hughes and other talents associated with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s saw Taylor as a father figure, a role model, and an example of victory over prejudice.".