My First 79 Years

There is no more beloved musician in the classical world than Isaac Stern, revered not only as a great violinist but also as a generous personality and a crucial figure in the world of the arts. One of the few people who has known every major classical musician of the last two-thirds of the century, he shares his personal and artistic experiences in this warm, passionate account of his life: the story of his rise to eminence; his feelings about music and the violin; and his great friendships and collaborations with colleagues such as Leonard Bernstein and Pablo Casals. Stern the man, the musician, and the cultural institution come alive in the most readable and revealing musical autobiography of the decade.