Ludwig van Beethoven

La Mara, one of the most prolific authors of musical biographies in the 19th century, writes in a lively, narrative style intended for a wider audience. The work depicts Beethoven's life from his childhood in Bonn, through his years in Vienna, his struggle with deafness, to his late creativity. Special attention is paid to his strong, rebellious personality, his relationships with patrons, his love tragedies, and his heroic struggle against the fate that took his hearing away.

Edition Slave from Vienna was founded with the aim of popularizing musical literature, sheet music, and cultural works in the Croatian/Serbian/Slovenian language among the South Slavic audience in Austria and the homeland. The publishing project is associated with Milan Obuljen (Dubrovnik, c. 1880 – Vienna, 1923), a mysterious and versatile entrepreneur, a pioneer of Yugoslav sheet music publishing, cinematography, and progressive ideas.

He specialized in musical literature (biographies of composers, popular music booklets, sheet music). He published in small, accessible formats (e.g. the "Muzika" library). The most famous are the La Mara editions (Beethoven, Chopin, etc.) translated by the music historian and composer Božidar Širola.

Edition Slave is a typical example of publishing from the period immediately after World War I — when the Vienna publishing scene was still an important center for South Slavic authors and translators, before most activities moved to Zagreb and Belgrade. Due to the short life of the project (ended around 1923, partly due to the death of Milan Obuljen) and the small publishing opus, the books from Edition Slave are today bibliographic rarities.