Friedrich Wieck practice, however, he might not always have lived up to the ideals he described in the book "Piano and Song: How to Teach, How To Learn, and How to Form a Judgment of Musical Performances." When Robert Schumann was living and studying in the Wieck household, he reported seeing Wieck punishing his nine-year-old son, Alwyn, for playing the violin poorly, tearing at his hair and yelling, "You wretch, you scoundrel, is this the way you try to please your father?" Clara seemed unconcerned at the violent scene. Shocked, Schumann wrote in his diary, "Am I among human beings?" Besides the
Clara Bloodgood Havemeyer, the son of a wealthy sugar manufacturer, and John “Jack” Bloodgood, Jr., whose father made millions in banking over the years following the American Civil War. She married Havemeyer in 1887 and divorced him within a year or so. She went on to marry Bloodgood in 1890, only to see him lose his inheritance and health within a very short period. His death in 1897, which left her in a dire financial situation, led Clara to attempt a career in theater. In 1902 she married William Laimbeer, a New York stock broker. Clara Bloodgood's stage debut came in January