Did you know?

From 1777 to 1783 James Boswell was a columnist for the London Magazine, writing a total of seventy essays under the pseudonym the Hypochondriack.

Biographies

James Boswell mentioned thousands of people in his extensive journals and other writings. Read about an ever increasing number of those people, and about their relationship with Boswell, in our biographies section.

Literature

In our literature section you can read about the numerous books published by Boswell in his own lifetime, and about more than 40 other books about or related to Boswell published since his death in 1795.

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert - Professor of Poetry

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert

Born 1715
Died 1769

Alias:

Professor Gellert

Biography:

From 1745 Privatdozent of Philosophy1 at the University of Leipzig. In 1751 he was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Philosophy, also in Leipzig.

He was one of the most popular German authors of his time, and was, according to Boswell, sometimes referred to as the “Gay of Germany”.2 Among his most popular works are Fabeln und Erzählungen (1746-1748), Geistliche Oden und Lieder (1758) and the play Die zärtlichen Schwestern (1747).

Life with Boswell:

Boswell went, on Bel's recommendation, to see Gellert on October 5, 1764 in Leipzig. Boswell found him basically “a good creature”, but much overrated. He described him as “a poor, sickly creature”, and “a poor mind, with hardly any science” who had “a tolerable fancy and a knack of versifying, which has pleased the German ladies and got him a mushroom reputation”.

Notes:

Note 1: Privatdozent - an academic title used in German-speaking countries, resembling that of an Associate Professor.

Note 2: Boswell on the Grand Tour I, 1763-1764, p. 123, referring to the English poet John Gay (1685-1732), the author of one of Boswell's favourite theatre pieces The Beggar's Opera

Literature

A large selection of Gellert's works is usually available via the AbeBooks used books search engine, some of them in English translations. Search for author "Christian Gellert". In the 1980s most of his surviving correspondence was published in annotated editions from Walter de Gruyter - search for "C.F. Gellerts Briefwechsel"