沈草農先生，號琴戡，原籍浙江省蕭山市，生於一八九一年，逝世於一九七三年。沈氏早歲曾在湖北宜昌學琴，稍長，拜裴介卿門下，歸宗川派。其琴風高古淡遠，不同凡響，惟其參加今虞琴社後，雜學諸家之藝，查阜西先生認為其“風格已非舊矣”。沈氏曾著《古琴自學法》一書，其後於一九六一年與查阜西、張子謙據此合編《古琴初階》行世，其傳世著作還有《珍霞閣詩草初稿》及《珍霞閣詞稿》。
SHEN Cao-nong was born in 1891 and passed away in 1973. His other name was Qin-kan and his ancestral home was in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang Province. When he was young, he learned the qin in Yichang, Hubei Province and later on he studied under PEI Jie-qing of Sichuan School. He has written a book Learning the Qin by Yourselve. In 1961, he then rewrote it together with ZHA Fu-xi and ZHANG Zi-qian and rename it as Elementary Book of Guqin.、