Bettina von Arnim

She and her husband Achim happily led separate lives. His great collaborator Brentano was her brother, and Gisela von Arnim her daughter. Her intense correspondence with Goethe (which she is often, perhaps unfairly, accused of doctoring) contributed to her fame as a writer ahead of her time. Her touching friendship with Beethoven made her try to get the two great men to collaborate, but their only meeting proved disappointing. She knew Brahms and the Mendelssohns, corresponded with Liszt and Turgenev, stood up for the Grimms, urged Clara Schumann to rescue Robert from the asylum, and was attracted by Marx’s sparkle.