Alexandre Dumas, fils

Alexandre Dumas fils

1824 (Paris) – 1895 (Marly-le-Roi, France)

Dumas grew up acquainted with many of his father’s literary friends; Andersen and Lamartine are two who wrote about it, Lamartine in fact becoming a friend in his own right, appreciative of Dumas’ visits. Sand, similarly, became a close friend; he called her “chère maman” and helped her dramatise on of her novels, while they sustained an extensive correspondence. Verne was another close friend, and Maupassant the recipient of fatherly affection. Bernhardt played Dumas’ best-known role; in return he gave her a letter he’d originally written to break off with the courtesan who had initially inspired the part.

Frederic Mistral

Frédéric Mistral

1830 (Maillane, France) – 1914 (Maillane)

Mistral, more than anyone, is responsible for the revival of Occitan (and its dialect Provençale) as a literary language. Roumanille, initially his school-teacher, became his colleague and effectively his disciple: their meeting catalysed their lives’ work. Lamartine, shown the manuscript of his poem ‘Mireio’ on the first of his two visits to Paris, enthusiastically promoted it. Daudet, a great friend, corresponded for nearly 40 years, and based a story on Mistral’s cousin’s suicide. Mallarmé, Gounod (researching his opera based on ‘Mireio’) and Cody all came to visit, Cody giving him his dog as a present.

Frederic Mistral knew…

Henri Murger

Henry Murger;Henri Mürger;Louis-Henri Murger

1822 (Paris) – 1861 (Paris)

A minor literary figure, Murger’s pioneer writing about bohemian life was genuinely influential, and inspired the composers Verdi and Leoncavallo. He collaborated with his sidekick Banville (a novel in letter form), warned Manet about Delacroix, and died of syphilis in Nadar’s arms. Along with Baudelaire, Courbet and Nadar, he belonged to a coterie who hung out at a café where the owner allowed his hard-up customers to share a single coffee, reckoning to cash in on their eventual fame (he did). The older Musset, already established, was another friend. Whistler, something of a groupie, embarrassed him by his attentions.

Jules Verne

1828 (Nantes, France) – 1905 (Amiens)

Verne is celebrated as the first great exponent of science-fiction writing. He knew Delibes as a student, and became close friends with both the younger Dumas (they collaborated on two plays) and his father, who helped him professionally. Verne’s publisher Hetzel introduced him to Nadar — another great friend, with a shared interest in ballooning (he helped inspire ‘Five Weeks in a Balloon’) and in the bohemian lifestyle. Hugo gave him writing advice, Sand wrote as an enthusiastic fan, and Roussel paid him a visit. Although Verne revered François Arago and knew his brother, it is unclear whether any direct contact existed.

August von Platen

Graf Platen;August Graf Platen;August von Platen-Hallemünde

1796 (Ansbach, Germany) – 1835 (Syracuse, Sicily)

Platen’s writing continues to be re-evaluated, though his literary vendetta with Heine (anti-semitism and gay-bashing to the fore) has ensured a continuing prominence. During his decade spent as a student, he befriended Grimm, and had a short but intense affair with Liebig (who later married and settled down). He met Goethe, who said that he was talented but lacked love, and was enthusiastic about Schelling, who gathered an enthusiastic circle of admirers in Erlangen. His friend Bruschmann introduced his poetry to Schubert, who set some of it to music (and may have met Platen). There is little evidence that he and Heine ever met.

Czesław Miłosz

1911 (Šeteniai, Lithuania) – 2004 (Kraków, Poland)

Andrzejewski was a close friend in wartime Poland; he also met Szymborska at this time. Camus became an important friend in Paris, where Éluard and Neruda (he had mixed feelings about Neruda) went to parties with him. In America, Einstein warned him about the dangers of exile, Ginsberg paid him a back-handed compliment, and Merton engaged him in a lively decade-long correspondence. He translated, corresponded with and famously fought with Herbert. His friend Gombrowicz said he’d had to contend with strife, torment and doubts previously unknown to writers. Brodsky, another friend, admired him hugely.

Czesław Miłosz knew…

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

1729 (Kamentz, Germany) – 1781 (Braunschweig)

Lessing is a key figure in German literature. Weisse and he were close student friends, scrounging food and shelter together, and translating plays for money. Mendelssohn was a colleague and lifelong friend; he said Lessing was the only person who never made him feel, as a Jew, unwanted (though his freemasonry upset him). Lessing met and did translations for Voltaire in Berlin, but delayed return of a manuscript, and attacked his cultural influence. In Hamburg, Lessing met Bach and played chess with Klopstock. Jacobi wanted to meet him for years, finally did, and influentially published their conversation about Spinoza.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing knew…

Achim von Arnim

Ludwig Achim von Arnim

1781 (Berlin) – 1831 (Wiepersdorf, Prussia, now Germany)

Bettina von Arnim was his wife, Gisela their daughter. Brentano — Bettina’s brother — was his great collaborator, generally considered the more gifted writer. Arnim met Tieck, a significant friend, when he was 19, and then Brentano and Goethe as a student in Göttingen (Goethe was a long-term friend and influence, though he regretted Arnim’s taste for medievalism). Brentano and Arnim gathered together a group of like-minded younger Romanticist writers in Heidelberg, including the Grimms, Eichendorff and Görres. Arnim worked on Kleist’s newspaper and mixed with his circle in Berlin (including Müller and Fouqué), before retiring to the country.

Achim von Arnim knew…

Bettina von Arnim

Bettina Brentano;Bettine von Arnim

1785 (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) – 1859 (Berlin)

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.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

1742 (Ober-Ramstadt, Germany) – 1799 (Göttingen)

A keen anglophile, Lichtenberg met Priestley, Solander, Banks, Aubert and Raspe in London. He went to Drury Lane with Johann Reinhold Forster, admiring and meeting Garrick, and regretted when he visited Bath (bored with tea-drinking and card-playing) that he hadn’t known that his future correspondent Herschel lived there. Goethe and Kant were friends and correspondents, Humboldt a grateful student, and Georg Forster a close friend and fellow-editor. Blumenbach and Gmelin were colleagues in Göttingen. Volta (full of ideas) dedicated a body of research to him: he joked about Volta’s understanding of sexual electricity.