M: Writings ’67–’72

Blurb

M: Writings ’67–’72 is a book of essays by American avant-garde composer John Cage, first published in 1973 by Wesleyan University Press.
M was Cage's third full-length book, after Silence: Lectures and Writings and A Year from Monday. All of the essays in it were written between 1967 and 1972. Charles Hamm, a biographer of Cage, has said "virtually his entire career as composer, poet and visual artist was counterpointed by his own words", including this volume in the middle of his most productive years. Henahan, writing for The New York Times Book Review, contrasted the "uncollectable and unpreservable, gaily but deliberately writ on water" form of his music with "slight chance of outliving him by much" to the solid permanence of his writing, including M. In 1981, Henahan predicted that only Cage's four books of essays, including M and that year's For The Birds, would be remembered in 2001.