music recording: References & Edit History

Roland Gelatt, The Fabulous Phonograph, 2nd rev. ed. (1977), a general history of the phonograph, particularly good on the complex corporate developments; Oliver Read and Walter L. Welch, From Tin Foil to Stereo, 2nd ed. (1976), a scholarly and detailed phonographic history with much elucidation of technical matters; Frederic W. Wile, Emile Berliner: Maker of the Microphone (1926, reprinted 1974), an adulatory, but worthwhile, biography; Fred Gaisberg, The Music Goes Round (1942, reprinted 1977), an autobiographical account of the history of the phonograph by a man associated with Berliner from the earliest days (a valuable source despite many inaccuracies); Matthew Josephson, Edison (1959), a thoroughly researched biography of the inventor of the phonograph; Joseph Batten, Joe Batten’s Book: The Story of Sound Recording (1956), another personal documentation of early phonographic history, not as far-ranging as Gaisberg’s but with much unduplicated material. Russell Miller and Roger Boar, The Incredible Music Machine (1982), is a popular history.