William Mercer Cook was born on January 27, 1869, in Washington, D.C., and became better known as Will Marion Cook, an eminent composer, violinist, and choral director. His father, John Hartwell Cook, was in the first class of the Howard University School of Law in 1871 and later became one of the first African American attorneys to practice in the nation’s capital.
From 1867 to 1872, John served as the chief clerk of the Freedmen’s Bureau. He was professor and dean of the Howard University Law School from 1876 to 1878. A year later, he died of tuberculosis, leaving his wife, Isabel, to maintain the family, eventually sending all three of her children away to live with other families.
After a violent altercation with a teacher who strapped him, 10-year-old Cook was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in Chattanooga, Tennessee, both of whom were formerly enslaved. It was during this period of his life that he first heard the folk music, what he called the “real Negro melodies,” that would inform his future endeavors. He stayed only a year in the region before returning to his mother, who was convinced that the South was not the place to be at that time.
Back with his mother, Cook began a serious study of music. Like his father, he enrolled at Oberlin College and at 14 he was among the youngest students at the conservatory. A veritable prodigy on the violin, he entered the tutelage of Frederick G. Doolittle, along with lessons from Fenelon Rice, L. Celestia Wattles, and Calvin B. Cady. Ever the adventurous musician, Cook envisioned studying abroad and numerous benefit recitals provided the funds he needed to travel. There was also a considerable amount of money donated by admiring sponsors of the talented youth, including support from Frederick Douglass.
He arrived at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1887 for two years, studying and working with the violinist Heinrich Jacobson, who was chairman of the orchestral instruments department. Jacobson was a star student of the esteemed Joseph Joachim, who was considered the greatest violinist of the age. There is no definitive information about how long Cook’s tenure was under the guidance of Jacobson.
Whatever the length of study, Cook profited, and in 1894 and 1895, he studied with the renowned Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, then living in the U.S. There was also a valuable stint with John White at the National Conservatory of Music. He made his professional debut in 1889 in his hometown. No matter how gifted he was, Cook was a Black man, and ultimately his career was limited in the classical realm. But he prospered in musical theater both as a composer, conductor, and arranger.
In 1890, he became director of a chamber orchestra that toured the East Coast. Among his many duties and successes was his development of scenes for the opera version of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” prepared for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, though the performance was ultimately canceled. Five years later, Cook had much greater luck with a production of “Clorindy: The Origin of the Cakewalk,” a one-act musical created with the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first of its kind at a Broadway venue. He would achieve even better notice, and glowing reviews, with his 1903 musical, “In Dahomey.” By this time he was married to the young singer, Abbie Mitchell. They had two children, one of them was Will Mercer Cook, the noted scholar and history teacher at Howard University and later U.S. Ambassador to Niger.
Cook gained his widest recognition as the composer and musical director for the George Walker and Bert Williams Company. He continued to compose and his musical genius was evident on “In Dahomey,” featuring his partners Walker and Williams. It was a monumental full-length musical and by 1904 toured England and later parts of the U.S. His reputation touched and influenced several luminaries, including jazz musicians Sidney Bechet, Duke Ellington, and Eubie Blake.
His house on Striver’s Row in Harlem is a National Historic Landmark. In 1944, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was admitted to the hospital and died 29 days later on July 19, 1944. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Find Out More
See James Weldon Johnson’s “Black Manhattan” and almost any book on the history of Black Theater.
Discussion
Something more needs to be said about his marriage to a 14-year-old Abbie.
Place in Context
Born just after the end of the Civil War, he died as World War II raged.
This Week in Black History
July 14, 1934: Famed golfer, Lee Elder, was born in Dallas, Texas. He died in 2021.