ERNEST NEWMAN was born in 1868. Educated at Liverpool College and Liverpool University, he had intended to enter the Indian Civil Service, but when his health broke down, he went instead, into business in Liverpool. In 1905 he became music critic of the Manchester Guardian and subsequently of the Birmingham Post. In 1920 he began his long career as music critic for the Sunday Times (London). Mr. Newman has written, translated, and edited numerous books, among which are his stories of the Great Operas (Volume I and II available in the Vintage series), and his celebrated four-volume biography The Life of Richard Wagner (1933, 1937, 1941, 1946). He died on July 7, 1959."e;By all odds, this is Newman's best full-length book-a triumph of concise biography."e;-Jacques BarzunWagner as Man and Artist remains by far the best general introduction to the composer, because Newman admiration for the music did not blind him to the man's unappealing character, nor to the slim value of his pronouncements on extra-musical matters;-Peter Heyworth in The Observer (London)