Edward William Elgar (June 2, 1857 - February 23, 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. Inoperable colorectal cancer was discovered during an operation in 1933. He died in 1934 at the age of 76. Elgar's major have, in the 21st century, recovered strongly from their neglect in the 1950s. No photographer credited, undated.