Joseph Wechsberg

Joseph Wechsberg (29 August 1907 – 10 April 1983) was a Jewish Moravian writer, journalist, musician, and gourmet. Born in Ostrava, in Moravia, Czechoslovakia, he and his wife requested and received asylum in the United States in 1939 when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. His mother was among the Czech Jews interned by the Nazis and later was murdered at Auschwitz.[1] Over his career he was a prolific writer who wrote over two dozen works of nonfiction, including books on music and musicians, and contributed numerous articles to publications such as The New Yorker.[2]

Tombstone of Joseph Wechsberg

Bibliography

Books
  • Homecoming. New York: Knopf. 1946.
  • Looking for a Bluebird, Penguin, 1948
  • Blue Trout & Black Truffles (the peregrinations of an Epicure), Alfred A.Knopf, 1954
  • Avalanche, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1958[lower-alpha 1]
  • Red Plush and Black Velvet: the Story of Dame Nellie Melba and her Times, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1962.
  • The Merchant Bankers, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1966.
  • The Murderers Among Us, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967. LCN 67-13204.
  • The Voices, 1969[lower-alpha 2]
  • The First Time Around: Some Irreverent Recollections, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1970. LCN 75-108954.
  • The Glory of the Violin, Viking Adult, 1973, ISBN 978-0670342662
  • The Lost World of the Great Spas, New York: Harper & Row, 1979 ISBN 0060145846
  • The Vienna I Knew, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1979, ISBN 0-385-12674-3
  • Trifles Make Perfection: Selected Essays of Joseph Wechsberg, Boston: David R. Godine, 1999 ISBN 1-56792-092-6 LCN 98-29258

Short fiction
Stories
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected Notes
The magic carpet 1950 Wechsberg, Joseph (January 7, 1950). "The magic carpet". The New Yorker. 25 (46): 23–26.
New York is full of girls Wechsberg, Joseph (1953). "New York is full of girls". In Birmingham, Frederic A. (ed.). The girls from Esquire. London: Arthur Barker. pp. 93–100.

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Notes
  1. An account of a deadly avalanche in Blons, Austria, in 1954.
  2. Account written in Vienna of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Wechsberg's book Blue Trout & Black Truffles was gifted by Nick Kokonas to Grant Achatz while Nick was trying to convince Grant to form a restaurant partnership with him. The result was Alinea, the only Chicago restaurant to retain a three-star status, Michelin’s highest accolade.

References
  1. "Joseph Wechsberg's biography in German".
  2. "Nearly-exhaustive list of English language books written by Joseph Wechsberg".
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