This in reply to a private mail from Michael Swanson:

> Larry;  Thanks for the insight.  I know very little about Josef Hofmann
> other than his legacy of great recordings and rolls.  Never would have
> guessed that he was so mechanically minded.  Now I'll have to find a
> good biography of him.  Can you recommend one?
>
> Regards, Michael

Believe it or not, no one has ever written a full-scale biography of
Josef Hofmann.  Gregor Benko, who co-founded IPAM (International Piano
Archives at Maryland), did much research and gathered a lot of material
on Hofmann with the intention of doing his biography, but as far as I
know this has never come to fruition.

There is a small book called "The Amazing Marriage of Josef Hofmann and
Marie Eustis" by Nell Graydon and Margaret Sizemore (c. 1965), which you
can find in some libraries, but this deals with only one aspect of his
personal life and not with him as musician, genius, inventor, etc.

There are snippets about him in "The Great Pianists" and "The Virtuosi,"
both by Harold C.  Schonberg, and the liner notes of reissues of his
records, issued by IPAM in the 1970s, are very informative about Hofmann.

That's about the extent of published information about Hofmann, except
for brief references to him in books by and about other musicians who
knew him.  He had a long, fascinating life, and it would make a great
story; I hope someone writes it someday.

Larry Lobel
Virtuoso Piano Service
Petaluma, California