Editing Thelonious Monk (section)

===Posthumous myth: Monk at Juilliard===
There have been numerous published references since the 1980s in Monk biographies claiming that he attended the [[Juilliard School| Juilliard School of Music]],<ref>Publications claiming Monk attended Juilliard include Alyn Shipland: ''Jazz Makers: Vanguards of Sound'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2002, p. 153; Douglas K. Ramsey: ''Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music & Some of Its Makers'', [[University of Arkansas Press]], 1989, p. 154; ''[[Encyclopedia Americana]]'', Volume 19, 1999, p. 370, et al.</ref> an error that continues to be disseminated in online biographies of Monk.<ref>A fragmentary list of websites claiming Monk attended Juilliard includes [https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/monk-thelonious-sphere encyclopedia.com], [https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/monk-thelonious-1917-1982/ BlackPast], et al.</ref> At Monk's funeral service in 1982, it was mentioned in his eulogy that he took classes in harmony and arrangement at Juilliard.<ref>Fitterling, Thomas: ''Thelonious Monk: His Life and Music'', Berkeley Hills Books, 1997, p. 25.</ref> In the 1988 documentary film ''Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser'', [[Samuel E. Wright]] narrates that "Monk began playing piano without formal training. Later, he took lessons and studied music theory at the Juilliard School of Music."<ref>See film ''Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser'', from 03:20.</ref>

The complete lack of documented evidence connecting Monk with attending Juilliard was noted by Monk biographer Thomas Fitterling in the first German edition of his Monk biography published in 1987.<ref name="auto">Fitterling (1997), p. 26.</ref> The Juilliard canard may have its early source in the fact that Monk's sister Marion thought that her piano teacher, a Mr. Wolfe (sic), who briefly taught Thelonious around 1930, may have been connected to Juilliard as a teacher or student.<ref>Gourse, Leslie: ''Straight no Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk'', London: Books with Attitude, 1997, p. 7.</ref> In fact, the Monk family piano teacher had been trained by the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic and has no known connection to Juilliard.<ref name="auto1"/> Monk biographer Laurent de Wilde believed that the apocryphal Juilliard story may have stemmed from Monk's late 1950s collaboration with Juilliard instructor [[Hall Overton]].<ref name="auto"/> The main source of the Juilliard misunderstanding is probably that Monk participated in a music contest {{circa|1942}}–1943 at the Columbus Hill Community Center in his neighborhood, which had a Juilliard scholarship as the first prize. Monk entered the contest but placed second and thus failed to get the scholarship. According to Monk's wife Nellie, when the prize winner later encountered Monk during a 1958 engagement and told him that Monk should rightfully have been awarded the Juilliard scholarship, Monk replied: "I'm glad I didn't go to the conservatory. Probably would've ruined me."<ref>Kelley, Robin (2010), p. 30.</ref>