es, Nathaniel Hawthorne and his short story, Feathertop, Louisa May Alcotts novel, Little Women, and Henry David Thoreaus Walden (Block 1). In 1947, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his Third Symphony (A Life With Music, Swafford 9).During the first four years in New York City of the "Gay Nineties," Ives held organist/choirmaster positions in two established churches, played recitals, and composed the church cantata The Celestial Country, melodic and basically Victorian. Though most of the more conventional works of this period are lost, from his church music Ives continued to develop new pieces, notably the four Violin Sonatas that together make up the most important American contribution to that genre (The Man, His Life, Swafford 6).Apart from his musical career, Ives also worked at his insurance company, and music was a weekend job. He started with insurance when he was fresh out of Yale and began earning fifteen dollars a week as a clerk (A Life With Music, Swafford 3). In 1907, he had become so successful that he formed Ives & Co. with his partner Julian Myrick. Charles felt compelled to take on the Insurance business because he knew that he could not support a wife and children on a musicians payroll (The Man, His Life, Swafford 6). As creative as he was, Charles soon became known in the industry for had become Ives & Myrick. The firm had made almost half a billion dollars in insurance business (A Life With Music, Swafford 4-5). He finally got his wild, heroic ride to heaven on May 19, 1954. Ives popularity came slowly, but a few important musicians started the trend and even devoted some of their lives to his work (The Man, His Life, Swafford 2). For a man who gave everything to music and was the trend setter for the American composing style, he more than anyone deserves the title of The Father of American Music....
