cover image Steinway and Sons

Steinway and Sons

Richard K. Lieberman. Yale University Press, $50 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-300-06364-6

From 1853 until 1972, when their company was sold to CBS, successive generations of Steinways produced the instrument that became synonymous with the word piano. Drawing on the collection of Steinway papers at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, Lieberman, professor of history at New York City's LaGuardia Community College, tells the story of this dynasty of strong-willed businessmen who set out to make the world's best piano, learned to market it brilliantly and built an empire in spite of financial setbacks, labor disputes and family feuds. After the death in 1896 of William Steinway, who led the company through its most prosperous period, the legacy became increasingly difficult to maintain. The account of the long struggle waged by William's son Theodore, who headed the company from 1927 to 1955, to keep Steinway going in spite of the Depression, labor disputes, WWII and competition from upright pianos is especially sad. Finally, unable to withstand competition from foreign piano makers, Theodore's son Henry sold the company. Lieberman's lucid book, based on different material than was D.W. Fostle's The Steinway Saga, published earlier this year, is equally absorbing. Photos. (Nov.)