Though George Grove (1820-1900) was never a professional musician, his is one of the most familiar names in music: as founder of the great Dictionary of Music and Musicians that bears his name and first director of the Royal College of Music. This book surveys his varied activities as engineer, biblical scholar, administrator, educationalist and writer on music, and assesses the qualities that led him to play a major role in the cultural life of London in the period 1850-1900.

CHRISTINA BASHFORD is a lecturer in the Music Department at Oxford Brookes University, UK
CELIA CLARKE is now retired and works on the catalogue of the Royal College of Music Library's holdings of Sir George Grove's letters
PETER HORTON is Reference Librarian and Research Coordinator at the Royal College of Music
LEANNE LANGLEY is on the research staff of Goldsmiths' College, University of London, UK
JANET RITTERMAN has been director of the Royal College of Music in London since 1993
ROSEMARY T. VAN ARSDEL is Distinguished Professor of English, Emerita, University of Puget Sound, USA
DAVID WRIGHT is currently engaged in a full-length study of concert life in London since World War II, and has previously been Head of Postgraduate Programmes at the Royal College of Music
PERCY YOUNG is retired and works at home as 'Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Music' at the University of Birmingham

Preface and acknowledgements PART 1: GROVE'S WORLD Introduction: The Many Interests of a Great Victorian; M.Musgrave Grove the Man: Background, Temperament and Ambition; C.Clarke & M.Musgrave Describing and Evaluating: Grove on Technology, Geography, Exploration and Literature; M.Musgrave PART 2: THE SCHOLAR AND WRITER 'The Other Dictionary': Grove's Work in Editing Dr Smith's Dictionary of the Bible ; P.M.Young The Making of a Scholar: Grove's Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert; M.Musgrave Not just 'G': Towards a History of the Programme Note; C.Bashford PART 3: AT MACMILLAN Grove as Editor of Macmillan's Magazine 1868-1883; R.T.Van Arsdel Roots of a Tradition: The First Dictionary of Music and Musicians ; L.Langley PART 4: THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC Grove's Role in the Founding of the RCM; D.Wright Grove as First Director of the RCM; J.Ritterman The Documentary Legacy: Grove's Library and Papers at the RCM; P.Horton Chronology Appendicies Bibliography Index