Up to Now (autobiography)

Up to Now is the autobiography of the British composer, conductor and theatre producer Martin Shaw (1875–1958). It was published by Oxford University Press in 1929, when Shaw was 53. His reminiscences cover the early period of his life, his family and upbringing, his early career working with Gordon Craig, Isadora Duncan and Ellen Terry, his marriage, and the development of his work in church music, especially his collaborations with Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The book contains many anecdotes, largely about Shaw's friends and colleagues in the theatre and music world but also ones relating to other prominent figures such as the British statesman Viscount Grey.

Up to Now
Portrait of Martin Shaw from a series of photographs taken for the frontispiece of Up to Now
AuthorMartin Shaw
CountryUnited Kingdom
GenreAutobiography
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date
1929
Media typeHardback
Pages218
OCLC1377968

Shaw's book was the first of two autobiographies published in 1929 with the title Up to Now. The second was by the American politician and four-time Governor of New York, Al Smith. As The Times Literary Supplement pointed out, the title promised more to come, but although Shaw lived on for another thirty years, he never published a sequel. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Up to Now continued to be used as a source for biographical works on Gordon Craig, Isadora Duncan and Ellen Terry. Eighty years after its publication, the author's grandson, theatre director Robert Shaw, adapted Up To Now as a 45-minute monologue which was performed at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.