Glenn Gould: A Life in Pictures

Desmond Maley is the music librarian at the J.W. Tate Library,
Huntington College, Laurentian University, and editor of the CAML
Review.

Although Gould nostalgia buffs will enjoy this handsome coffee-table
book—and I count myself as one of them—others may find it has a
dated feel. The reality is that Gould died a generation ago—in 1982 at
age 50. Most of the celebrated musicians with whom Gould worked, and who
are depicted in these pictures, are now themselves either deceased or
near the end of their lives. The highwater mark of the Gould phenomenon
was in the ’50s and ’60s, beginning in 1955 with his influential
recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. But many of Gould’s more
controversial pronouncements, such as the imminent demise of the concert
hall, seem rather antique now, or have become part of accepted wisdom.

Tim Page’s introductory appreciation of Gould is lively and
thoughtful. I was disappointed, however, that so little space was
accorded to the strong likelihood that Gould was afflicted with
Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of late-onset autism that affected other
20th-century geniuses such as Albert Einstein and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
This is the big news in Gould-related research in recent years.

It was also somewhat puzzling to discover that it was Malcolm Lester,
not Page, who prepared the gallery of black-and-white photographs,
captions, and quotations that form the centrepiece of this loving
portrayal. There is no hint of this on the title page or in the
cataloguing information. Only on the last page is Lester credited for
developing and creating the book.