Alexander Wheelock Thayer’s Life of Beethoven has long been regarded as the classic biography of Beethoven. Thayer’s approach to biography was to present in chronological order the factual evidence concerning Beethoven, the man and his work, and to eliminate the analysis and aesthetic evaluation of the music. To gather the materials necessary for such an undertaking, he went to Europe. There he spent most of his life seeking out those persons still alive who had known Beethoven and studying the sources that were available. His biography succeeded in clearing away the romantic fiction that was then, in the 1870s, current. He gave a full account of the composers life which was based on reliable, historical method.