Irving Sloane was a self-taught luthier best known for his books on classical guitar building. His books made it possible for would be luthiers to get a start at home without travelling to Spain or Germany to apprentice with a master luthier. Sloane was a classical & flamenco player who was inspired to start building guitars in the 1950s after seing the work John D'Angelico. Working at home for the next 15 years, he developed the techniques to make a guitar: this led to the publication of his book  ''Classical Guitar Construction,'' in 1966. He followed this up with ''Guitar Repair''  in 1973 and later published books on ''Steel String Guitar Construction'' and ''Making Musical Instruments''.

Source: Irving Sloan obituary. New York Times. July 3, 1998.