Contents: Introduction, Jolanta T. Pekacz; 'Renovating' Bach and Handel: new musical biographies in the German Democratic Republic, Toby Thacker; The nation's property: Chopin's biography as a cultural discourse, Jolanta T. Pekacz; Maurice Ravel: private life, public works, Steven Huebner; Lingering legends: Liszt after Walker, Michael Saffle; Fanny in Italy: the female composer as travel writer, Marian Wilson Kimber; This is (y)our life: (re)writing women's autobiographies in music in 19th-century Germany, James Deaville; Unremarkable musical lives: autobiographical narratives, music, and the shaping of the self, David Gramit; A life on film: Renato Castellani's The Life of Verdi, John C. Tibbetts; Bibliography; Index.