Chris Bonds wrote, responding to John Smyth wrote:

>>Beethoven wrote while deaf and blind...
>
>Deaf, yes, blind, no. (Unless you know something the rest of the world
>doesn't.)

And even deaf is only partly true.  Yes, the beginning of Beethoven's
loss of hearing started rather early, when he was about 26, but not until
1817 he felt the need to use conversation books, since it had become too
difficult to converse.  He was 46 then and had another 10 years to live.
Still in 1812 he played the piano in a convincing way and still in 1816
a visitor could talk to him, though he had to talk loudly.

Joyce Maier