Born: 31 August 1879, Austria
Died: 11 December 1964
Country most active: Austria
Also known as: Alma Mahler-Werfel, Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Alma Schindler had been studying composition and writing dozens of her own works for years when she became engaged in 1901 to Gustav Mahler, twenty years her senior. At that point, she stopped writing. Mahler wrote to her, “The role of composer falls to me, yours is that of loving companion…!” When he finally showed an interest in her work years later after the death of their daughter and Alma’s subsequent affair, it was too little, too late. He died in 1911 and Alma later noted, “Ten years of wasted development cannot be made up anymore. It was a galvanized corpse that he wanted to resurrect.”