Wolfgang Hildesheimer; Mozart Biographer

POSCHIAVO, Switzerland — Wolfgang Hildesheimer, whose candid biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart became an international bestseller, died Wednesday. He was 74.

The German-born author suffered a heart attack at his home in this small town in southeastern Switzerland near the Italian border, his family said.

“Mozart” won rave reviews when it was published in 1977 after Hildesheimer completed two decades of research into the life of the composer he called “perhaps the greatest genius in recorded history.”

It differed from previous biographies in allowing that while Mozart was a genius musically, he had some notable character flaws. One critic wrote that it showed a “genius in soiled underclothes.”

Hildesheimer first caught critics’ attention in 1952 with his “Loveless Legends,” a collection of amusing and malicious tales of the world of intellectuals and artists.

His novels included “Tynset,” an account of a sleepless night, which was published in 1965, and “Marbot,” a 1981 “biography” of totally imaginary historical figures in Victorian England.