Gustave Schirmer

Gustave Schirmer, though still on the morning side of life when elected to The Century, and scarcely middle-aged when he died at forty-three, after only four years of membership, was a choice spirit in this Association from the very beginning. In his arduous life as a publisher of the best music, he was the friend and patron of genius, beloved by all his authors, an authority in both worlds as to the public taste and its improvement, a man of mark in the artistic circles of the great capitals of Europe and America. His modesty was such that in spite of these undisputed facts his acquaintance was not so wide in other spheres as that of many of his fellows but it was growing swiftly with every passing year. An accomplished amateur musician, a keen critic of his art, he yet found time for special studies in the sciences, was an officer of the Geographical Society and of his church, while likewise an unobtrusive patron of art, letters, and education. His catholic spirit, his reserve strength, his kindly soul, made his brief career a force, not only in his native city, but in the university town of Princeton where he had his summer home. His life and death were alike triumphant.

William Milligan Sloane
1908 Century Association Yearbook