Now in paperback: the definitive biography of one of the most lauded musical geniuses in history, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, by the acclaimed composer and biographer Jan Swafford At the earliest ages it was apparent that Wolfgang Mozart’s singular imagination was at work in every direction. He hated to be bored and hated to be idle, and through his life he responded to these threats with a repertoire of antidotes mental and physical. Whether in his rabidly obscene mode or not, Mozart was always hilarious. He went at every piece of his life, and perhaps most notably his social life, with tremendous gusto. His circle of friends and patrons was wide, encompassing anyone who appealed to his boundless appetites for music and all things pleasurable and fun. Mozart was known to be an inexplicable force of nature who could rise from a luminous improvisation at the keyboard to a leap over the furniture. He was forever drumming on things, tapping his feet, jabbering away, but who could grasp your hand and look at you with a profound, searching, and melancholy look in his blue eyes. Even in company there was often an air about Mozart of being not quite there. It was as if he lived onstage and off simultaneously, a character in life’s tragicomedy but also outside of it watching, studying, gathering material for the fabric of his art. Like Jan Swafford’s biographies Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, Mozart is the complete exhumation of a genius in his life and ours: a man who would enrich the world with his talent for centuries to come and who would immeasurably shape classical music. As Swafford reveals, it’s nearly impossible to understand classical music’s origins and indeed its evolutions, as well as the Baroque period, without studying the man himself. "Composer and biographer Swafford brings expertise and insight to bear on a comprehensive, animated life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart…. Swafford deftly captures that brilliance in a challenging narrative that is sure to thrill classical music fans…. An admiring, authoritative biography.” - Kirkus Reviews "[An] amazing biography....Orchestrating words and themes as deftly as any of the composers he so vividly has revealed to date (who will be next, we wonder?), Swafford transforms a deluge of available information into imaginative yet fact-based contexts that reveal Mozart’s talent in a down-to-earth and memorably human way." - Bookreporter.com "If tackling an 832-page biography of anybody seems daunting for the general reader, Swafford makes it almost effortless with Mozart, animating his genius....and, as a composer himself, offering an astute yet thoroughly approachable analysis, almost piece by piece, of the composer’s entire canon, lingering fittingly on the composer’s major operas....A virtually indispensable volume for the music collection." - Booklist (starred review) "The copious detail will appeal to musicologists, while the flowing, conversational style will draw in general readers who’d like to learn more about the composer. Heartily recommended to everyone with an interest in the subject." - Library Journal (starred review) “It is a great pleasure to read about Mozart as a working composer in a narrative written by a working composer....Jan Swafford, an author whose music has been performed by the symphonies in St. Louis and Indianapolis, is our guide into the composing process, aided by a dexterous use of Mozart’s  correspondence and a deep knowledge of how music came about during the 18th century…The result is a biography that has an immediacy, a wholly thrilling ‘you are there’ impact.” - San Francisco Chronicle “The book goes well beyond setting the historical record straight, however. It is an utterly comprehensive look at Mozart's life, as well as an exhaustive reference to his music. Swafford, who has also written biographies of Beethoven, Charles Ives and Brahms, is a composer first, and his keen understanding of music is his greatest strength as a biographer.” - Minneapolis Star Tribune “Few hearts fail to melt upon encountering his humane, joyous and ravishingly beautiful music. The challenge for any biographer is how to articulate where this elusive magic comes from…. Jan Swafford has met that challenge head on.... For many [Mozart's] works are dear old friends. You can come away from this book feeling that he is too.” - The Times (UK) “ Mozart: The Reign of Love , is now the best single-volume English biography of the greatest composer and musician who ever lived.” - Merion West The author of biographies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Charles Ives, Swafford is a fluent writer with a sharp eye for detail.... [He]...capably guides classical music enthusiasts through Mozart’s life from its miraculous first act to its denouement." - New Criterion "There may be no one better to tell the exuberant story of the life, loves and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart than composer and author ( Beethoven  and  Johannes Brahms ) Jan Swafford. Musicians