Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, foremost among German men of literature, was born at Frankfurt-am-Main in 1749. His early education was directed by his father and tutors. At sixteen he entered the University of Leipzig where he first turned to writing in earnest. In 1770 he went to Strasbourg to study law; there a love affair with the daughter of a village pastor later inspired the idyllic Dichtung und Wahrheit (1814). He returned to Frankfurt to practice law, remaining for four years and writing prolifically. The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) aroused enthusiasm not only in Germany but throughout Europe. Goethe accepted an invitation from the Duke of Weimar in 1775 to join his court and for a decade held various official positions there. The year 1787 was spent in Italy where he wrote Iphigenie auf Tauris and worked on the first part of Faust (1808). In 1791 Goethe was appointed director of the ducal theater, a position which he held for twenty-two years. Schiller and Goethe founded a periodical, Die Horen, after they met in 1794; their friendship flourished until Schiller's death. In 1806 Goethe married Christiane Vulpius, the mother of his four children. Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (1821-1829) was a continuation of a work begun in 1786. In the last year of his life Goethe completed the second part of his masterpiece, Faust; he died in Weimar in 1832.Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von is the author of 'Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings', published 1962 under ISBN 9780451523037 and ISBN 0451523032.