In 1984, A History of Western Music appeared prominently in a photograph on the cover of US News & World Report, illustrating a feature story on “America’s Youth in Search of a Cause.” Hope Kirkpatrick noticed it and sent a photocopy to Donald and Margaret Grout. (A distinguished soprano, Hope Kirkpatrick was married to John Kirkpatrick, the pianist and Ives scholar whose papers are now at Yale. Both Donald Grout and John Kirkpatrick had taught at Cornell.) Margaret Grout then passed it along to Claire Brook, the music editor at W.W. Norton, which published the book. Brook had not seen it, and she replied, in part, “Fortunately, we didn't have to contend with the legal questions that arose when a naked young lady in the centerfold of Playboy was posed with a clearly legible copy of The Norton Scores, some years ago. I liked this one a lot better.”

We are grateful to the Cornell University Library, home of the Donald Jay Grout Papers, and to Kristy Swift, who informed us about this exchange of letters. We are also pleased to acknowledge the help of the SML Access Services Department, for allowing us to borrow this volume from the Franke Periodical Room stacks.

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