Joseph Wechsberg (29 August 1907 – 10 April 1983) was a Jewish Czech writer, journalist and musician. He was born in

Moravská Ostrava Moravská Ostrava is a part of the Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz city Statutory city (Czech Republic)#Differences of statutory city, borough in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Originally a separate town, it was merged with surrounding municipalities Př ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. He and his wife requested and received asylum in the United States in 1939 when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. His mother was among the

Czech Jews The history of the Jews in the Czech lands, historically the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, including the modern Czech Republic (i.e. Bohemia, Moravia, and the southeast or Czech Silesia), goes back at least 1100 years. There is evidence that ...

interned by the Nazis and later was murdered at

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

. Over his career he was a prolific writer who wrote over two dozen works of nonfiction, including books on music and musicians, and contributed numerous articles to publications such as ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

''.

Bibliography

Books

* * ''Looking for a Bluebird'', Penguin, 1948 * ''Blue Trout & Black Truffles (the peregrinations of an Epicure)'', Alfred A.Knopf, 1954 * ''Avalanche'', Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1958 * ''Red Plush and Black Velvet: the Story of Dame Nellie Melba and her Times'', Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1962. * ''The Merchant Bankers'', Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1966. * ''The Murderers Among Us'', McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967. LCN 67-13204. * ''The Voices'', 1969 * ''The First Time Around: Some Irreverent Recollections'', Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1970. LCN 75-108954. * ''The Glory of the Violin'', Viking Adult, 1973, * ''The Lost World of the Great Spas'', New York: Harper & Row, 1979 * ''The Vienna I Knew'', Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1979, ISBN 0-385-12674-3 * ''Trifles Make Perfection: Selected Essays of Joseph Wechsberg'', Boston: David R. Godine, 1999 LCN 98-29258

Short fiction

;Stories

In popular culture

Wechsberg's book Blue Trout & Black Truffles was gifted by Nick Kokonas to Grant Achatz while Nick was trying to convince Grant to form a restaurant partnership with him. The result was Alinea, the only Chicago restaurant to retain a three-star status, Michelin's highest accolade.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wechsberg, Joseph 1907 births 1983 deaths 20th-century Czech male musicians 20th-century Czech people 20th-century journalists 20th-century violinists Czech Jews Czech food writers Czech journalists Czech male writers Czech violinists Esquire (magazine) people Czech male violinists Musicians from Ostrava The New Yorker people Writers from Ostrava