Robert Schumann Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. His teacher, Friedrich Wieck, a German pianist, had assured Schumann that Robert could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing. In 1840, after a long and acrimonious legal battle with Wieck, who opposed the marriage, Schumann married Wieck's daughter
Clara Whipple 1923, to Laura Evangeline Williamson (maiden; 1884–1978). From that marriage, Clara gained a half-sister, Frances Jane Whipple (born 1925), who in 1943, married Joseph John Kerchner (1920–2000). On April 10, 1919, Whipple married motion picture director James Young, Jr., at the Mission Inn, Riverside, California. For Young, it was his third of four marriages. Whipple, at the time, was a well-regarded silent film scenario writer. James Young, from 1910 to 1917, had been married to the movie actress Clara Kimball Young – his second marriage. Clara Whipple retired from the screen after marrying James Young. She returned to movies as