Many string quartets have had books written about them. These are, to one extent or another, factual accounts, some press agentry aside. Among the many unique things about the Pro Arte Quartet is that it is perhaps alone in being the inspiration for fictional writing, especially by one of a group's members.

Bernard Milofsky

In the course of his career as a brilliant violist and as member of the Pro Arte String Quartet, Bernard Milofsky conceived the idea of writing fiction. He took a few courses at the University of Wisconsin in creative writing, and at some point began writing a novel. It was about the travails of a string quartet and its members, and it was given the title of Fiddlers Four. Milofsky continued to work on it after he left Wisconsin. He was engaged in the project in 1962 and in 1964, when he was given encouragement in letters from Rudolf Kolisch. As the work continued thereafter, Milofsky was eventually joined in some of the writing by his son David. A publication-ready manuscript was prepared, under the title first of The Fiddlers Four and then of The Casa Bella Quartet. Through a series of two agents in New York, it was submitted to more than one publisher, but was never accepted. In its final form, it remains unpublished.

In the collection of Mills Music Library at the University of Wisconsin– Madison there is a volume of 708 pages in typescript, indicated as a draft entitled Fiddlers Four: A Novel, heavily revised, as of 1960. This was edited and personally typed by James Crow in 1995, two years after Milofsky's death.

The history of this typescript is full of questions. It clearly represented an early form of the novel, as it was taking shape. As such, it cannot be accepted as a full representation of the novel as finally written. James Crow was a distinguished professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and an amateur violist of considerable skill. He undertook some studies with Milofsky in his Madison years and the two became good friends. After Milofsky stopped playing, he bequeathed his viola to Crow, who used it lovingly for his own playing. The friendship, and contacts, continued after Milofsky moved to Pennsylvania.