Franz Liszt's daughter Cosima began her diaries on January 1, 1869, a few weeks after leaving her husband to live with Richard Wagner. Until Wagner's death in 1883 they were rarely parted, and the diaries provided a continuous and intimate picture of the composer's life and work during those fourteen years. Widely hailed when they were first published in Geoffrey Skelton's English translation in 1978 and 1980, the diaries are now available in an abridged paperback edition from Yale University Press.

In this meticulously researched book, Oliver Hilmes paints a fascinating and revealing picture of the extraordinary Cosima Wagner—illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt, wife of the conductor Hans von Bülow, then mistress and subsequently wife of Richard Wagner. After Wagner’s death in 1883 Cosima played a crucial role in the promulgation and politicization of his works, assuming control of the Bayreuth Festival and transforming it into a shrine to German nationalism. The High Priestess of the Wagnerian cult, Cosima lived on for almost fifty years, crafting the image of Richard Wagner through her organizational ability and ideological tenacity.The first book to make use of the available documentation at Bayreuth, this biography explores the achievements of this remarkable and obsessive woman while illuminating a still-hidden chapter of European cultural history.