Profession: writer

Johann Kaspar Lavater

Johann Caspar Lavater

physiognomist, writer, theologian

1741 (Zürich) – 1801 (Zürich)

Lavater’s lifelong friend Fuseli and he were briefly exiled for denouncing a corrupt magistrate. Sulzer accompanied them on a journey on which they met Klopstock, and the great Jewish scholar Mendelssohn, whom Lavater unwisely tried to convert to Christianity. Ideas he had developed about the soul led to his meeting Kant and Herder. Goethe became a great friend (though they later fell out), mutually fascinated by the soul’s expression through the face. Among his many correspondents were Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Wieland, Basedow and Claudius. Though he greatly influenced Blake, it is unlikely that they met.

Johann Kaspar Lavater knew…

William Saroyan

writer

1908 (Fresno, Calif.) – 1981 (Fresno)

A widely-underrated author. George Bernard Shaw, who’d met Saroyan, sent a letter of literary encouragement. Artie Shaw introduced Saroyan to his teenage future wife, while Steinbeck offered to pull strings to keep him out of WWII (an offer declined). Hemingway was an acquaintance, though rather dismissive of Saroyan’s talent, and Miller a friend and correspondent, as was Saroyan’s translator Queneau. Passing through Finland on his way back from Russia to America, Saroyan called unannounced on Sibelius, and wrote about it. Chaplin gave a speech on the occasion of his remarriage to the same woman (their wives had been schoolfriends).

William Saroyan knew…

William S. Burroughs

writer

1914 (St. Louis, Mo.) – 1997 (Lawrence, Kans.)

Corso, Ginsberg and Burroughs lived for six years in the same Paris lodging-house. Ginsberg and Kerouac (who shared an apartment with Burroughs) helped him assemble the text of ‘Naked Lunch’, which Corso and Southern persuaded Girodias to publish. Gysin, very close to Burroughs, was a frequent collaborator, suggesting the cut-up technique. Coleman accompanied him on a trip to hear Moroccan mountain musicians. Trocchi was a good friend, Anderson and Smith described him as a major influence, while McCartney found him difficult to talk to. Wilson, Waits and Laswell all collaborated with him.

William S. Burroughs knew…

Wieland Herzfelde

publisher, writer

1896 (Weggis, Switzerland) – 1988 (Berlin)

Herzfelde collaborated extensively with his more celebrated brother, Heartfield. Together with Grosz, they founded a magazine ‘die Pleite.’ Huelsenbeck and Baader were among fellow activists in the Berlin Dada scene from 1918. Through his Malik-Verlag (and encouraged by colleagues Piscator and Lasker-Schüler – she inspired his nom de plume as well as the business name), Herzfelde published work of Grosz and Brecht among others. Canetti worked as a translator for him. Brecht, Döblin, Mann, Feuchtwanger, Bloch and Herzfelde co-founded an anti-fascist publishing company while in exile in the U.S., before his return to Germany in 1949.

Wieland Herzfelde knew…

Walter Serner

Walter Eduard Seligmann

writer

1889 (Karlsbad, now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic) – 1942 (?Riga, Latvia)

Serner faked a medical certificate for Jung that enabled him to desert, and joined in Cabaret Voltaire events in Zürich with Arp, Schad and Tzara (who however later marginalised Serner’s influence on the Dada group). The inveterate traveller Serner accompanied his closest friend Schad to Naples, Geneva and Frankfurt, went to Paris with Picabia and Tzara, and was seen by Éluard in Geneva (again). Arp said that no-one knew what became of him, though having been deported to Terezin in 1942, he was transported onward and died, perhaps in Riga. Richter described him as “an idealist in a world of pragmatists.”

Walter Serner knew…

Walter Benjamin

philosopher, cultural critic, writer

1892 (Berlin) – 1940 (Portbou, Spain)

The ideas of Benjamin’s close friends Adorno, Brecht and Scholem all informed his own work. He met Rilke and Scholem while studying in Munich, and Brecht (who sheltered him twice in Denmark) through a lover, Brecht’s secretary. He worked closely with Adorno, latterly by correspondence, and befriended Lukács, a strong influence. Hofmannsthal published an essay of Benjamin’s. Arendt, Weill and Hesse, exiles from Nazism, were all met in Paris: also Bataille and Klossowski. Perse saved him from a second wartime internment. Horkheimer arranged for him to enter the U.S., but thwarted in his escape from France, he killed himself.

Walter Benjamin knew…

Umberto Eco

semiotician, writer

1932 (Alessandria, Italy) – 2016 (Milan)

Pareyson and Abbagnano taught Eco; Vattimo was a fellow-student. Eco’s long friendship with Berio started when both worked for the Italian state broadcaster, RAI. Hobsbawm and Putnam were academic colleagues-in-arms. Eco held Calvino in high regard, corresponded with Quine, conversed with Wilson, and described Barthes as “my dear friend.”

Umberto Eco knew…

Thomas Carlyle

writer, historian

1795 (Ecclefechan, Scotland) – 1881 (London)

Carlyle, fluent in German, wrote about and corresponded with Goethe. Emerson, an early fan, visited him in his remote farmhouse and corresponded for decades. Leigh Hunt, who became a good friend, suggested he move to unfashionable Chelsea, where Tennyson, Ruskin and Darwin visited (though Carlyle later spoke out against Darwinism). Butler (most likely) thanked God for Carlyle’s mismatched marriage “thus making two people unhappy rather than four.” Chopin visited for an hour, telling the Carlyles their piano was out of tune. Dickens, a close friend, drew on Carlyle’s book on the French Revolution for ‘A Tale of Two Cities.’

Thomas Carlyle knew…

Thomas Beddoes

scientist, writer

1760 (Shiffnall, England) – 1808 (Clifton)

Black taught Beddoes in Edinburgh: Beddoes complained to him about Oxford’s lack of scientific potential. He met Lavoisier on a trip to Paris. Josiah Wedgwood helped him establish his ‘Pneumatic Institute’, Watt developing equipment for his nitrous oxide experiments, and Darwin, a friend, proposing Bristol for his base. Davy (recommended by Thomas Wedgwood) acted as Beddoes’ assistant, later commenting on his shyness and wild imagination. Coleridge, a close friend, consulted him on his medical problems, imaginary and real. Keir introduced him to R. L. Edgeworth, whose daughter he married: Thomas Lovell Beddoes was their son.

Thomas Beddoes knew…

Théophile Gautier

writer, critic

1811 (Tarbes, France) – 1872 (Paris)

Nerval, a lifelong friend from school, introduced Gautier to Hugo. Nadar was another friend for life; Gautier published many of his photos. Dumas was from the same salon de l’Arsenal côterie. Balzac told Gautier he was talented, Hugo is credited with turning him from painting to literature, and du Camp had a volume of Gautier’s poetry dedicated to him. Gautier wrote about his drug experiences at the Club des Haschischins, which he founded, other members being Delacroix, Baudelaire, Dumas and Nerval. The composers Liszt, Wagner and Meyerbeer were among his correspondents, and Flaubert another friend.

Théophile Gautier knew…