Annette Kolb does not fit into any of the standard "isms" used to label or categorize writers of the twentieth century, nor was she a towering, independent literary giant. But she became, through the persistence of a few seminal ideas and her unique personality, a spiritual catalyst for others, thereby securing for herself a modest niche in the annals of modern German literature. Her three novels are read today only by a coterie of admirers; her biographies of composers will be remembered more for their impressionistic vignettes and idosyncratic insights than for their penetrating analyses of Mozart, Schubert, and Wagner; finally, her numerous collections of essays and expository prose may be dated with regard to their topical references, but the issues they raise, such as the prevention of war, are still pertinent.

Born in Munich in 1870 (on her passport she once tried to forge the date 1875) to a...