Eduard von Bauernfeld

1802 (Vienna) – 1890 (Vienna)

Bauernfeld was a close friend of Schubert’s for the last four years of the composer’s short life, one of a group of male friends the composer would spend evenings drinking and discussing with (recent research drawing on Bauernfeld’s diaries has focused on the possibility that the circle had a strong gay element.) As well as translating ‘Who Is Sylvia’ for Schubert and providing other lyrics, Bauernfeld also worked on a ‘banned’ libretto, and was a mainstay of the Schubertiads, evening meetings of friends, including the composer, singing Schubert songs. Grillparzer and Lenan were other friends, Schlegel an acquaintance, Andersen a correspondent.

Eduard von Bauernfeld knew…

Christoph Martin Wieland

1733 (Oberholzheim, Germany) – 1813 (Weimar)

Bodmer invited Wieland to Switzerland, but became disenchanted with his turn towards worldly pleasures. Leopold Mozart was a friend of Wieland’s, Goethe and Herder friends and professional colleagues in Weimar. Schopenhauer’s mother, worried about her son’s intended career as a philosopher, asked Wieland to talk to him about it (he supported the young man.) Hufeland was his doctor, Forster and Lavater correspondents. He showed Kleist a manuscript, while Gluck, a friend, advised him on effective libretto-writing, telling him to avoid secondary stories requiring extra sopranos.

Christian Felix Weisse

1726 (Annaberg, Germany) – 1804 (Leipzig)

Mendelssohn told him that he wrote with too much facility; Goethe reported that everyone liked him and enthusiastically enjoyed his plays. What they and others disregarded was his importance, in hindsight, as a children’s author and writer of popular lyrics. Lessing and he were close friends as students, scrounging for a living, and translating plays. Klopstock was another student friend. Hiller collaborated with him on a number of light operas (they more or less invented German singspiel). Wieland and Jean Paul visited him; he also got acquainted with Rousseau and Voltaire when he was in Paris.

Karl Philipp Moritz

1756 (Hamelin, Germany) – 1793 (Berlin)

Moritz worked for a while as a teacher in Basedow’s experimental school in Dessau. Goethe (met in Rome), Mendelssohn and Carstens (who illustrated some of his work) were all friends. Humbodlt and Tieck were among his students. He met Schiller in Leipzig and Wieland in Weimar. He was a great admirer and supporter of Jean Paul. Maimon and he co-edited what has been described as the first journal of psychology. There is some suggestion that as editor, Moritz had more than a hand in the writing of Maimon’s autobiography; their lives emerge as remarkably similar in many respects.

Karl Philipp Moritz knew…

Ernest Legouvé

1807 (Paris) – 1903 (Paris)

Legouvé was a lifelong close friend of Berlioz’s, and helped him out financially; Berlioz set a poem of his to music. Scribe collaborated on the two plays for which he is best known. Süe was another close friend; his confidence lost, Legouvé suggested he act like Goethe and write about his disillusionment (he also famously demonstrated how two completely unrelated men could share the same sister, using himself and Süe as illustration). Among composers, Gounod was another of his close friends, while Liszt famously played Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ at Legouvé’s, with the lamps all turned out.

Ernest Legouvé knew…

Alfred de Vigny

1797 (Loches, France) – 1863 (Paris)

Vigny knew Dumas from Nodier’s Salon de l’Arsenal, the seedbed of French romanticism; Hugo, Musset, Lamartine and Sainte-Beuve were all regular attenders. Of these, Hugo was one of Vigny’s closest friends, though the friendship later faded; Sainte-Beuve treated him cordially but later became his most damaging critic (coining the term ‘ivory tower’ to describe Vigny’s social seclusion); and Lamartine, in his diplomatic role, hosted Vigny in Florence. He visited Sand; while not one of her lovers, his own lover Marie Dorval famously was. Thackeray, Disraeli and Carlyle were met during a long stay in London.

Alessandro Manzoni

1785 (Milan) – 1873 (Milan)

Goethe translated one of his novels, publicly defended his work, and corresponded with him; Manzoni was convinced that he owed much of his fame to Goethe. Stendhal met Manzoni when he settled in Milan; he was subsequently banished for associating with members of the patriotic movement like him. Verdi composed his celebrated ‘Requiem’ for his hero, following his death; the two had met only once, through a mutual friend, Verdi respecting the older writer’s extreme shyness and desire for privacy.

Alessandro Manzoni knew…

Edward Gorey

1925 (Chicago) – 2000 (Hyannis, Mass.)

O’Hara and Gorey were Harvard room-mates, well-known for their exotic odd-couple appearance. Gorey was bad about keeping up with O’Hara afterwards, though not before they, Ashbery, Lurie and others founded a Cambridge theatre-company together; Wilder supported them. Gorey wrote a libretto for Wolf — an opera seria for his hand-puppets. Addams was a friend; they lunched together sometimes, Addams envying Gorey his more highbrow reputation.

Edward Gorey knew…

Carson McCullers

1917 (Columbus, Ga.) – 1967 (Nyack, N.Y.)

Auden (a literary mentor), Mann, Britten, and the Bowles lived communally in the same Brooklyn house. She and Williams were longstanding close friends and fellow-spirits; he visited her during her final coma. Albee was another close friend. Her sister introduced her to Capote, sure they would get on well (they did, until he was accused of stealing her plots). Dinesen only met McCullers once (and they didn’t dance on the table with Marilyn Monro), but wrote, and sent flowers when she was ill. McCullers’ relationship with Welty is best described as a rivalry, while her childish obsessiveness embarrassed Porter.

Carson McCullers knew…

J. R. R. Tolkien

1892 (Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, now South Africa) – 1973 (Bournemouth, England)

Lewis was Tolkien’s closest and longest-lasting friend, though for complex reasons the friendship cooled in later years. Auden was an early supporter of Tolkien’s writing, a regular correspondent and good friend. Avedon, who’d never met Tolkien, knocked on his door to give him a birthday cake. When Clarke invited Lewis to meet in an Oxford pub to explore their opposing standpoints on life and technology, Lewis took Tolkien along as his ‘second’ (as Cleaver was for Clarke). It seems hard to imagine people more poles apart; they duly failed to appreciate each other’s view of the world, and decided to get drunk instead.

J. R. R. Tolkien knew…