Edward Maisel (August 16, 1917, Buffalo, New York – March 21, 2008) was an internationally known writer on

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

and

tai chi Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called "shadowboxing", is an neijia, internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and medita ...

. He went to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

where he graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

; he was also

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. He lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for most of his life. He wrote ''

Charles T. Griffes Charles Tomlinson Griffes ( ; September 17, 1884 – April 8, 1920) was an American composer for piano, chamber ensembles and voice. His initial works are influenced by German Romanticism, but after he relinquished the German style, his late ...

: the Life of an American Composer'', the first definitive and still influential biography of this major early American composer. The CD ''The Songs of Charles T. Griffes'' was produced by Maisel. The

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

's Terrace Theater presented Maisel's production of Griffes' final but unfinished masterpiece ''Salut au Monde''. Maisel wrote the classic

Yang Yang may refer to: * Yang, in yin and yang, one half of the two symbolic polarities in Chinese philosophy * Korean yang, former unit of currency of Korea from 1892 to 1902 * YANG, a data modeling language for the NETCONF network configuration pr ...

form of

using the title ''Tai Chi for Health''. The book was published in the early 60s and is probably the original introduction to the movement art to Western enthusiasts. His wife, Betty Cage, an administrator at the New York City Ballet, operated a tai chi class at the affiliated School of American Ballet until her death in 1999. Maisel was Director of the American Physical Fitness Research Institute and a consultant to the

President's Council on Physical Fitness The President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition (PCSFN) is an American government organization that aims to "promote, encourage and motivate Americans of all ages to become physically active and participate in sports". It is part of the ...

. Maisel worked extensively with the Alexander Technique and wrote an introduction to a compendium of

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

's writings he himself selected. In his book ''Dr. America: The Lives of Thomas A. Dooley, 1927-1961'', James T. Fisher acknowledges receipt of copies of medical files from Maisel on suspected cases of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

prior to 1980 (e. g. 1968 U. S. AIDS virus infection documentation). Maisel obtained the files from Robert Galagan, MD, Hawaii.James T. Fisher ''Dr. America'', p. 288,

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...

, 1998

References

External links

Inventory of the Charles Griffes Collection at The New York Public LibraryCharles Griffes CD The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maisel, Edward 1937 births 2008 deaths Writers from Buffalo, New York Harvard University alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers

References

Further reading

External links