The world knows Bela Bartok as a composer. The essays contained in this voluminous compilation disclose a side of the great Hungarian previously known to relatively few persons: Bartok the man of letters. Theorist, performer, collector, scholar, and composer, Bela Bartok is internationally renowned as one of the most important and influential musicians of the twentieth century. Throughout his life, he wrote lectures and essays that dealt with virtually every aspect of European music. These essays, previously scattered in specialized journals, deal with the wide range of interests and expertise: folk music and musical folklore, the music of his contemporaries and great predecessors, a brief autobiography, the structure and performance of his own music, the sale of sound recordings, and music education.