The information for this article was provided by Martin’s family.

Famed Verdi scholar and historian George W. Martin passed away on June 8, 2023. He was 97.

Martin famously wrote 12 books on opera, Giuseppe Verdi, and other historical subjects.

Martin was born in New York in 1926 to George Whitney Martin Sr., a lawyer, and Agnes Wharton Hutchinson Martin. He was raised in New York and spent most of his life there. He graduated from Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law, practiced law for five years, and devoted his life to writing.

His most famed work is “The Opera Companion: A Guide for the Casual Operagoer,” which was published in 1961 and would get reprinted in  four more editions through 2008. His other works include “Twentieth Century Opera: A Guide” (1999) and “Opera at the Bandstand (2014).” He was also a renowned Verdi scholar, writing such works as  “Verdi: His Music, Life and Times” (1963),  “Aspects of Verdi” (1988), “Verdi at the Golden Gate: Opera and San Francisco in the Gold Rush Years” (1993), and “Verdi in America, Oberto through Rigoletto (2011).”

In 1992, he donated 350 Verdi scores and librettos to the Pierpont Morgan Library, which the library’s music curator said was “probably the largest and certainly the richest archive of printed Verdi sources in private hands in this country.”

Martin is survived by 11 nieces and nephews and their children.