UNC Press - C. F. Martin and His Guitars, 1796-1873

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352 pp., 7.25 x 11, 97 color / 88 b&w illus., 7 tables, appends., notes, index

H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman Series

Cloth

ISBN 978-0-8078-2801-4

Published: September 2003

The Martin is considered the finest acoustic guitar in the world, a distinction it has held for more than 150 years. Philip Gura chronicles the career of C. F. Martin from his humble start as an importer and repairman of musical instruments in New York City in the 1830s through his move to Nazareth, Pennsylvania and the founding of C. F. Martin & Company.

Gura is the first historian to study thoroughly the Martin company records dating back to the 1830s: letters, account books, inventories, and other documents. Using this rich archive, he establishes how a German immigrant from Saxony's guild tradition became the finest American guitar maker of his time and created a uniquely American business that successfully eclipsed its competition.

As Gura shows, Martin's success was based on his astute navigation of the rapid economic expansion and industrialization of his time. Martin adapted his artisanal craft to modern industrial methods, maintaining quality while meeting increased demand. After Martin's death in 1873, the company continued to grow, and it thrives today, producing instruments that are still the most sought after in the world.

With more than 175 illustrations, many of them in color, this book is a handsome and entertaining history of the nineteenth-century American music trade told through C. F. Martin's innovation and vision.

About the Author

Philip F. Gura is William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he holds appointments in the departments of English and religious studies as well as in the curriculum in American studies. His many books include the award-winning America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century, also published by The University of North Carolina Press. He is an editor for the Norton Anthology of American Literature.

Reviews

"A fascinating look at Christian Frederick Martin, the brilliant craftsman and business entrepreneur who founded the Martin Guitar Company. . . . C.F. Martin and His Guitars will appeal to guitar fans and readers interested in 19th-century American business history."
--Harvard Business School

"This is a beautifully illustrated and well-written book that guitar lovers will want to read."
--American Historical Review

"In C.F. Martin and His Guitars: 1796-1873, historian Philip F. Gura retells the familiar tale with a level of detail that dispels the romantic exaggerations that have accumulated around the name of C.F Martin over the decades. Gura was allowed unprecedented access to the Martin archives. . . . [The book] is copiously illustrated with color photos of some of the earliest known Martin guitars, along with many photos and drawings of musicians from the 1830s through the 1870s."
--Acoustic Guitar

"[The book] is an attractive and entertaining history of the 19th-century American music trade as well as a well-researched history of the earliest days of America's premier guitar builders, and its appeal will be wide."
--Vintage Guitar

"Martin owners will delight in [this] release. . . . Gura's treatment of Martin's success during a period of economic growth and modernization is as thorough as the dozens of crisp color photos are spectacular."
--Guitar One

"Philip Gura's charming book is well-researched, thoughtfully written, beautifully illustrated, and professionally executed."
--countryreview.com