author
M. (Malcolm) Sterling Mackinlay
1876–1952
Best known for writing about music from the inside, this English author was also a trained singer and teacher. His books on Antoinette Sterling and Manuel Garcia blend biography, performance history, and personal knowledge of the musical world he grew up in.
1 Audiobook
Garcia the Centenarian and His Times Being a Memoir of Manuel Garcia's Life and Labours for the Advancement of Music and Science
by M. (Malcolm) Sterling Mackinlay
About the author
Born in London on 7 August 1876, Malcolm Sterling Mackinlay was the son of the celebrated singer Antoinette Sterling. He studied at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, earned an M.A., and began his own career as a bass singer before turning increasingly toward teaching and writing.
His best-known books include Antoinette Sterling and Other Celebrities and Garcia the Centenarian and His Times, a lively memoir of the great voice teacher Manuel Garcia. Because Mackinlay had direct ties to the musical circles he described, his work carries the feel of firsthand observation as well as careful biographical storytelling.
He also wrote fiction, including the novel Reparation, showing that his interests reached beyond music into wider cultural and political questions. Mackinlay died in London on 10 January 1952.