THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2023 53 attending Harvard he had worked in the library, where his interest in music was heightened, and he began collecting research material on Beethoven. Classical music in Boston, and Beethoven symphonies in general, were then the rage, and the Boston Academy of Music, established in 1833, performed Beethoven frequently beginning in 1841, so much so that musicologist Joseph Horowitz devoted a section to “Boston and the Cult of Beethoven” in his book Classical Music in America (2005). In 1849 Thayer went to Germany for two and half years, traveling about, learning German, and doing research on Beethoven’s life because he intended to translate Schindler’s biography into English. To support himself, he wrote articles on music and culture for the Boston Courier. In 1852 he returned home and continued to write for publications, but in 1854 returned to Europe once more to pursue his Beethoven research. A little later, he decided that he would write a new Beethoven biography, in English, and have it translated and published in Germany. He also continued to write musical criticism and history, publishing articles on Beethoven, Antonio Salieri (Mozart’s alleged enemy), and others. Thayer began his diplomatic career in 1862 at age 45, with the help of Senator Charles Sumner (R-Mass.), a fellow Harvard alumnus. Thayer first obtained a position as secretary of legation in Vienna; and then, on Nov. 1, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln nominated him U.S. consul in Trieste. At that time, Trieste was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a major cosmopolitan port for Austria. Thayer assumed the post on Jan. 1, 1865, and kept it for 17 years until he resigned on Oct. 1, 1882. In 1866 President Andrew Johnson submitted Thayer’s name for appointment as consul in Vienna, which would have made it much easier for Thayer to continue his research on Beethoven, but the U.S. Senate failed to confirm him. By the time Thayer joined the diplomatic service, according to the Act of Congress of March 1, 1855 (10 U.S. Statutes 619), consular officers, whose main duties were those now performed by commercial attachés, had become salaried government employees. This relieved Thayer of financial worries; and, while his subordinates and clerks carried on most of the consular duties, he was able to continue his research and write his Beethoven biography. It was not unusual for presidents to appoint literary figures to diplomatic and consular posts, providing security of income and allowing them to pursue, concurrent to their duties, their avocations. Thus, we had Washington Irving and James Russell Lowell as ministers to Spain; Edward Everett, George Bancroft, and John Lothrop Motley as ministers to Great Britain; Lew Wallace as minister to Turkey; Nathaniel Hawthorne as consul in Liverpool; and William Dean Howells as consul in Venice. Other countries also had consuls with a literary bent in Trieste. Stendhal had been French consul there for a few months in 1830-1831, and in 1867-1872 the British man there was Charles Lever (1806-1872), a prolific novelist who once rivaled Dickens in popularity. Lever was succeeded as British consul by none other than Sir Richard Burton, the explorer and author, who was there from 1872 until his death in 1890. b While not neglecting his duties, during his earlier life in Germany and his occasional trips from Trieste, Thayer had interviewed virtually everyone still alive who had known Beethoven, read all available biographies, studied Beethoven’s surviving conversation books and any pertinent documents, and kept copious notes. He began to write his magnum opus in English, entrusting the translation to German educator and musicologist Hermann Deiters (1833-1907). The first volume of Life of Beethoven was published, in German, in Berlin in 1866; the second came out in 1872, and the third in 1879. Thayer was still working on the remaining volumes when he died in 1897. The fourth volume was being finished by Deiters when he died in 1907, and both this Alexander Wheelock Thayer. WIKIMEDIA
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