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Annette von Droste (January 10, 1797 – May 25, 1848) was a 19th century German author, and one of the most important German women poets.
She was born into an aristocratic, Catholic family in Westphalia, educated by private tutors, and began to write as a child, though she published no work until she was forty years old. Among her best-known works are the cycle of poems Das geistliche Jahr (The Spiritual Year) and the novella Die Judenbuche (The Jew's Beech).
Despite her withdrawn and restricted life she corresponded with intellectual contemporaries such as the Brothers Grimm. As her health continually worsened, earning a living through her writing was never an option. Despite this, she took her literary work very seriously.
Her break from her circumstances came with her trip to Lake Constance, originally only to visit relations. From 1841 she stayed with her brother-in-law, Joseph von Laßberg at Schloss Meersburg. In 1837 she became friends with the author Levin Schücking, who through her agency became the librarian at Schloss Meersburg.
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff died in May 1848 at Schloss Meersburg, probably from inflammation of the lung.
Works
- Gedichte, 1838
- Die Judenbuche (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/droste/judenbch/judenbch.htm) (novella), 1842
- Gedichte (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/droste/1844/1844.htm) (Poems), 1844
- Westfälische Schilderungen (Westphalian Illustrations), 1845
- Das geistliche Jahr (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/droste/jahr/jahr.htm) (The Spiritual Year, cycle of poems), 1851
- Der Knabe im Moor (The Lad on the Moor, ballad)
- Letzte Gaben (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/droste/gaben/gaben.htm) (Last Gifts, poems), 1860
- Briefe von Annette von Droste-Hülshoff und Levin Schücking (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/droste/brdroste/brdroste.htm) (Letters from Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and Levin Schücking)
References
Some of the material for this article comes from the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article (). It cites:
- P. Berglar: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1967
- Levin Schücking: Annette von Droste. Stuttgart 1964
- E. Staiger: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. Frauenfeld 1967