Walter Meyer wrote:

(apologies, in my other posting I forgot to respond to first part of your
posting)

>I checked out the "Immortal Beloved" correspondence, which I found in
>English only, and while Kinderman's suggestion has its attraction, they
>speak too much of matters relating to persons, such as baths, postal
>schedules, transportation problems, etc., to sound convincingly as
>addresses to Art itself.

Exactly. See, for instance, Beethoven's preoccupation with the post
services. A post service to a non-existing woman??? And he writes that
he hopes to meet her soon. A meeting with a non-existing woman??? Sounds
almost crazy. Now we know that he was a highly eccentric person, but he
wasn't crazy, never. Nevertheless a Dutch biographer, one Harke de Roos,
points to the pencil, mentioned by Beethoven in the first lines of his
letter. That pencil, De Roos writes, is a tapping-key into the direction
of the muse, Art itself. De Roos frankly admits that this explanation has
its "Freudian consequences" (or similar words, I don't recall exactly at
the moment). Entertaining guy, this De Roos!

Joyce Maier
www.ademu.com/Beethoven