For the birds

John Cage (1912 - 1992) was one of the seminal figures of the avant-garde in the U.S. A composer for whom the whole world -- with its brimming silences and anarchic harmonies -- was a source of music, Cage studied music with Adolph Weiss, Arnold Schoenberg, and others, later collaborating with such artists as Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Cage was the author of many books, including Silence, X, A Year from Monday, M, and Empty Words. The latter are all in print with Wesleyan, along with Joan Retallack's interviews with Cage, MUSICAGE: Cage Muses on Words, Art, Music and a paperback edition of Cage's Norton lectures at Harvard, I-VI.

Daniel Charles is the author of Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food and a former technology correspondent for National Public Radio and the New Scientist. He lives in Washington, D.C.