ON GOLDEN WINGS

This is the story of Giuseppe Verdi, of his life and music. Son of a poor peasant family, a musical career seemed out of his reach. But so ecstatic was the boy's love of music that a parish priest recognized it as an almost divine involvement. It is an account of his early failures and later triumphs, of a tragic first marriage and a long friendship which terminated in marriage with the celebrated prima-donna, Peppina. Gladys Malvern writes with understanding both of the man and the composer in a biography which will make more accessible to teen-age readers the great dramatic operas of Verdi.