Sonata Mulattica Sonata Mulattica Sonata Mulattica : A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play is a collection of poems by U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove, published in 2009, about the life of George Bridgetower. Bridgetower was a biracial (Afro-Caribbean, Polish, German) musician who was friends with Beethoven. Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata was originally dedicated to Bridgetower, and was originally entitled "Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer [Bridgetower], gran pazzo e compositore mulattico" (Mulatto Sonata composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, big wild mulatto composer) Dove said that she relied on documents such as the diary of Charlotte Papendiek, lady-in-waiting to the
The Kreutzer Sonata After the work had been forbidden in Russia by the censors, a mimeographed version was widely circulated. In 1890, the United States Post Office Department prohibited the mailing of newspapers containing serialized installments of "The Kreutzer Sonata". This was confirmed by the U.S. Attorney General in the same year. Theodore Roosevelt called Tolstoy a "sexual moral pervert." The ban on its sale was struck down in New York and Pennsylvania courts in 1890. In the Epilogue To The Kreutzer Sonata, published in 1890, Tolstoy clarifies the intended message of the novella, writing: Countering the argument that widespread abstinence would lead