David Nicholls is Professor of Music at the University of Southampton. Author of American Experimental Music, 1890-1940 (Cambridge, 1990) and editor of The Cambridge History of American Music (Cambridge, 1998) and numerous articles on topics in American music, he has also acted as contributing editor for the reissue of Henry Cowell's New Musical Resources (CUP, 1996) and The Whole World of Music: A Henry Cowell Symposium (1997). He is also editor of the journal American Music.

• List of illustrations; Notes on contributors; Preface; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Part I. Aesthetic Contexts: 1. Cage and America David Nicholls; 2. Cage and Europe Christopher Shultis; 3. Cage and Asia: history and sources David W. Patterson; Part II. Sounds, Words, Images: 4. Music I: to the late 1940s David W. Bernstein; 5. Words and writings David W. Patterson; 6. Towards infinity: Cage in the 1950s and 1960s David Nicholls; 7. Visual art Kathan Brown; 8. Music II: from the late 1960s William Brooks; Part III. Interaction and Influence: 9. Cage's collaborations Leta E. Miller; 10. Cage and Tudor John Holzaepfel; 11. Cage and high modernism David W. Bernstein; 12. Music and society William Brooks; 13. Cage and postmodernism Alastair Williams; 14. No escape from heaven: John Cage as father figure Kyle Gann; Endnotes; Bibliography; Index.

'… find this collection of 14 essays an amiable and accessible companion … this delightful and informative book.' BBC Music Magazine