Schauffler, Robert Haven, 1879-1964

Musician, lecturer, editor, poet, biographer, and writer of non-fiction.

Robert Haven Schauffler, author, lecturer, and musician, was born of American missionary parents in Brünn, Austria, on April 8, 1879. The family returned to the U. S. two years later, where Shauffler later attended Northwestern University (1898-1899) and Princeton University, earning his B.A. in 1902. He pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Berlin from 1902 to 1903. As a cellist, Schauffler studied under Steindel, Schroeder, and Hekking. In 1904, he married Katharine de Normandie Wilson, who died in 1916. During World War I, Schauffler was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Infantry of the U. S. Army, in which he was also an instructor in the Officers Training School at Camp Meade, Maryland. He participated in the Allied invasion of France, where he was severely wounded before the battle of Montfaucon in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Having been decorated with the Order of the Purple Heart, he was discharged May 28, 1919. Schauffler then resumed his career as author and lecturer, which he continued until his death in 1964.

Schauffler held positions as editor of Nassau Literary Magazine (1901-1902), music editor of The Independent (1903-1904), and was a special contributor to Collier's Weekly (1906), Century (1907), Outlook (1907), Success (1909-1910), Atlantic (1911), and Metropolitan (1911). Schauffler was a prolific poet, whose publications include Scum o' the Earth and Other Poems (1912), The White Comrade and Other Poems (1920), Magic Flame and Other Poems (1923), The Poetry Cure (1925), and New and Selected Poems (1942). He also published monographs on a variety of musicial subjects, including The Musical Amateur (1911), Fiddler's Luck (1920), Music as a Social Force in America (1927), Beethoven: The Man Who Freed Music (1929), The Unknown Brahms (1933), Fiddler's Folly and Encores (1942), Brahms, The Master (1943; with Madeleine Goss), Florestan: The Life and Work of Robert Schumann (1945), and Franz Schubert: The Ariel of Music (1949). Among his travel books, there are Through Italy with the Poets (1908), Romantic Germany (1909), and Romantic America (1913). Finally, Schauffler published many books celebrating holidays and observances, including Thanksgiving (1907), Christmas (1907), Arbor Day (1909), Washington's Birthday (1910), Independence Day (1912), Armistice Day (1927), Plays for Our American Holidays (1928), and Columbus Day (1938). In addition, Schauffler frequently contributed poems and articles to a variety of periodicals and anthologies throughout his career.