The National Book League was a precursor to the current Booktrust, and was set up in 1924 by the Society of Bookmen in order to promote reading, particularly among the young. To that end, the NBL issued Reader's Guides on a variety of subjects, each written by an author with expertise in that field and containing an annotated bibliography of recommended titles on the subject. Celebrated music critic and historian Alec Robertson wrote this Reader's Guide published in 1956. His bibliography is broken down by musical genre, and contains biographies of a great range of composers from a variety of periods.