TO CALL this book merely an autobiography is to give only a partial idea of its particular excellence and character. Albert Spalding writes about men and women, famous and obscure, as he has seen them, about places and events as he has observed them, and about music as it has been an integral part of his own life and of the lives of many people he has known. His is a mind enriched by experience, by art, and by thought.  To share with him the progress by which he became one of the greatest of American musicians it an adventure in discovery and a revelation.

The narrative ranges from 1895, when he was seven years old and was given his first violin, to the period just before the present war. There are triumphs here, of course, the author being who he is; for instance, the examination before the Bologna Conservatory, at the age of fourteen. Mr. Spalding passed it with 48 points out of a possible 50. Only one other candidate so young had ever done comparably well. That had been 133 years ago, and his name was W. A. Mozart. But this is no mere record of successes, encores, and adulation. It is rather the life story of a wise and cultivated man.

This special edition of RISE TO FOLLOW has been made available to the Armed Forces of the United States through an arrangement with the original publisher, Henry Holt and Company, New York.

Editions for the Armed Services, Inc., a non-profit organization established by the Council on Books in Wartime