Some Notable Dates in the Life of Henry Dixon Cowell

1897Mar 11Born at the family dwelling in Menlo Park. California. Father: Harry Clavton Black-wood Cowell, born an Irishman. Mother: Claris.sa Bel knap Dixon Cowell. of a midwestern family.
1902 Shows precocious interest in an old zither; is given a violin bv his mother. Takes some lessons from one Henry Holmes.
1903Nervous disorder ends his public school career after a few weeks; also hi.s violin career. His father drifts away from home.
1907-10Dire poverty. A time of wanderings, to New York and among relatives in the Midwest.
1910 Returns to hovel in Menio Park (see pp. xvi-xix for two accounts of him in this period).
1912Old upright piano enables him to begin externalizing his hitherto mental music.
1914 Members of the community make him known to Charles Seeger and other members of the music faculty at the University of California. Berkeley. Seeger recognizes a true autodidact and gives general guidance outside the classroom.
 Mar 5His first formal recital, for the San Francisco Musical Society. reviewed by the Sun Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner.
1916MayDeath of his mother.
 Oct Goes to New York. enrolling (sometime in November) in the In- stitute of Musical Art. At the urging of Seeger to rationalize his manner of playing piano, he begins to write New Musical Resource (which will be published in 1930). -
 Dec 3Plays in joint recital at the New York Public Library (East 58th Street branch) sponsored by "Our Family Music," a project of the New York Globe directed by Charles D. Isaacson.

Some Notable Dates in the Life of Henry Dixon Cowell