ABSTRACT
Louise Talma was a very private person, rarely cooperating with scholars in creating any kind of definitive biographical sketch aside from offering the dates of completion for most of her works and the dates of publicly known appointments and honors. Thus Talma’s biography has appeared in fragmented forms, repeating dubious information culled from Talma’s own vague statements made in interviews. Talma was particularly reticent in discussing her childhood and early adult life, and actively discouraged interviewers from asking about it even to the extent of supplying them with inconsistent and incomplete information, deliberately obfuscating or omitting details and facts. Indeed, the standard sources on Talma and her life, including accounts by Madeleine Goss, Susan Teicher, and Susan Ware, contain little information about Talma’s youth and early training and works, and much of what they do contain is factually incorrect, consisting of myths created by Talma’s mother and perpetuated by Talma. However, a number of recently discovered sources now allow for a preliminary construction of a narrative of Talma’s youth. These materials are revelatory, suggesting new explanations for several key events and decisions in Talma’s life, as well as helping to illuminate her first compositions.
