Eric Blom

Eric Walter Blom CBE (20 August 1888 – 11 April 1959) was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, musicologist, music critic, music biographer and translator. He is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1954).

Blom was born in Bern, Switzerland. His father was of Danish and British descent, and his mother was Swiss. He was educated in German-speaking Switzerland, and later in England. He was largely self-taught in music. He started in music journalism by assisting Rosa Newmarch in writing program notes for Sir Henry J. Wood's Prom Concerts, which were notable for their abundance of accurate information. From 1923 to 1931 he was the London music correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. He then went to the Birmingham Post (1931–46), and returned to London in 1949, as music critic for The Observer. He retired as chief music critic for The Observer in 1953, but still wrote weekly contributions right up till his death.

He was the editor of Music & Letters from 1937 to 1950, and again from 1954 until his death. He withdrew in 1950 because of his preoccupation with the preparation of Grove's Dictionary. He returned in 1954 only because the proprietor and then-editor, Richard Capell, died. In his capacity as musical adviser to the Dent publishing firm, he also edited the Master Musicians series, of which he wrote "Mozart". He discovered a number of young authors and gave them their first opportunities to write music biography.

Eric Blom's first lexicographical work was Everyman's Dictionary of Music (1947), which went through several editions (it was revised in 1988 by D. Cummings as The New Everyman Dictionary of Music).

...
Wikipedia