Valentin Alkan, Stephen Heller, Edouard Wolff, Mr. Charles Halle,
Mr. G. A. Osborne, T. Kwiatkowski, Prof. A. Chodzko, M. Leonard
Niedzwiecki (gallice, Nedvetsky), Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt,
Mr. A. J. Hipkins, and Dr. and Mrs. Lyschinski. I am likewise
greatly indebted to Messrs. Breitkopf and Hartel, Karl Gurckhaus
(the late proprietor of the firm of Friedrich Kistner), Julius
Schuberth, Friedrich Hofmeister, Edwin Ashdown, Richault & Cie,
and others, for information in connection with the publication of
Chopin's works. It is impossible to enumerate all my
obligations--many of my informants and many furtherers of my
labours will be mentioned in the body of the book; many, however,
and by no means the least helpful, will remain unnamed. To all of
them I offer the assurance of my deep-felt gratitude. Not a few
of my kind helpers, alas! are no longer among the living; more
than ten years have gone by since I began my researches, and
during that time Death has been reaping a rich harvest.

The Chopin letters will, no doubt, be regarded as a special
feature of the present biography. They may, I think, be called
numerous, if we consider the master's dislike to letter-writing.
Ferdinand Hiller--whose almost unique collection of letters
addressed to him by his famous friends in art and literature is
now, and will be for years to come, under lock and key among the
municipal archives at Cologne--allowed me to copy two letters by
Chopin, one of them written conjointly with Liszt. Franchomme,
too, granted me the privilege of copying his friend's epistolary
communications. Besides a number of letters that have here and
there been published, I include, further, a translation of
Chopin's letters to Fontana, which in Karasowski's book (i.e.,
the Polish edition) lose much of their value, owing to his