Rudolf Erich Raspe’s Followers (42)

Rudolf Erich Raspe

Born

in Hannover, Germany

March 20, 1736

Died

November 16, 1794

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Science, Nonfiction

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Rudolf Erich Raspe was a German librarian, writer and scientist, called by his biographer John Carswell a "rogue". He is best known for his collection of tall tales, The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, originally a satirical work with political aims.

Raspe was born in Hanover, studied law and jurisprudence at Göttingen and Leipzig and worked as a librarian for the university of Göttingen. In 1762, he became a clerk in the university library at Hanover, and in 1764 secretary to the university library at Göttingen. He had become known as a versatile scholar and a student of natural history and antiquities, and he published some original poems and also translations, among the latter of Leibnitz's philosophical works and of Ossian's p Rudolf Erich Raspe was a German librarian, writer and scientist, called by his biographer John Carswell a "rogue". He is best known for his collection of tall tales, The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, originally a satirical work with political aims.

Raspe was born in Hanover, studied law and jurisprudence at Göttingen and Leipzig and worked as a librarian for the university of Göttingen. In 1762, he became a clerk in the university library at Hanover, and in 1764 secretary to the university library at Göttingen. He had become known as a versatile scholar and a student of natural history and antiquities, and he published some original poems and also translations, among the latter of Leibnitz's philosophical works and of Ossian's poems. He also wrote a treatise on Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.

In 1767, he was appointed professor in Cassel, and subsequently librarian. He contributed in 1769 a zoological paper to the 59th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, which led to his being selected an honorary member of the Royal Society in London, and he wrote voluminously on all sorts of subjects. In 1774, he started a periodical called the Cassel Spectator. From 1767, he was responsible for some collections of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). He had to flee to England in 1775 after having gone to Italy in 1775 to buy curios for the Landgrave. He was found to have sold the Landgrave's valuables for his own profit.

In London, he employed his knowledge of English and his learning to secure a living by publishing books on various subjects, and English translations of German works, and there are allusions to him as "a Dutch savant" in 1780 in the writings of Horace Walpole, who gave him money and helped him to publish an Essay on the Origin of Oil-painting (1781). But Raspe remained poor, and the Royal Society expunged his name off its list.

From 1782 to 1788, he was employed by Matthew Boulton as assay-master and storekeeper in the Dolcoath mine in Cornwall. At the same time, he also authored books in geology and the history of art. The Trewhiddle Ingot, found in 2003, is a 150-year-old lump of tungsten found at Trewhiddle Farm. This may predate the earliest known smelting of the metal (which requires extremely high temperatures) and has led to speculation that it may have been produced during a visit by Raspe to Happy-Union mine (at nearby Pentewan) in the late eighteenth century. Raspe was also a chemist with a particular interest in tungsten. Memories of his ingenuity remained to the middle of the 19th century. While in Cornwall, he seems to have written the original version of Münchausen, which was subsequently elaborated by others.

He also worked for the famous publisher John Nichols in several projects, among which was a descriptive catalogue he compiled of James Tassie's collection of pastes and casts of gems, in two quarto volumes (1791) of laborious industry and bibliographical rarity. Raspe then went to Scotland, and in Caithness found a patron in Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, whose mineralogical proclivities he proceeded to impose upon by pretending to discover valuable and workable veins on his estates. Raspe had "salted" the ground himself, and on the verge of exposure, he absconded. He finally moved to Ireland where he managed a copper mine on the Herbert Estate in Killarney. He died in Killarney, County Kerry, of typhoid, in November 1794.

The Baron Münchausen tales were made famous when they were "borrowed," translated into German, and embellished somewhat by Gottfried August Bürger in 1786 — and have been among the favourite reading of subsequent generations, as well as the basis of several films, including Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Today it is not known whether anyone during Raspe's lifetime was aware of his authorship of the Adventures, other than his friend ...more

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Rudolf Erich Raspe’s books

Average rating: 3.78 · 9,008 ratings · 451 reviews · 109 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Adventures of Baron Münchausen 3.80 avg rating — 8,258 ratings — published 1785 — 619 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen 3.42 avg rating — 433 ratings — 171 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe, Thomas Seccombe (Afterword), William Strang (Illustrator) 3.28 avg rating — 190 ratings — published 1785 — 47 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Приключенията на Барон Мюнхаузен by Rudolf Erich Raspe, Ангел Каралийчев (Преразказал), Христо Жаблянов (Художник) 4.23 avg rating — 71 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Приключения барона Мюнхаузена by Rudolf Erich Raspe, Рудольф Эрих Распе, Alphonse Daudet 4.06 avg rating — 31 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Karnamay Nawab Tees Maar Khan Ke / کارنامے نواب تیس مار خاں کے by Rudolf Erich Raspe, Ibn e Insha (Translator) 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Приключения барона Мюнхгаузена / Чудесное путешествие Нильса с дикими гусями by Rudolf Erich Raspe, Gottfried August Bürger, Selma Lagerlöf 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Children's Munchausen (1921) by Rudolf Erich Raspe, Gordon Ross (Illustrator), John Martin (Editor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Aventuras del baron de Münchhausen really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen 2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Rudolf Erich Raspe (?)

“Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever.”
― Baron Munchausen

8 likes

“If the Baron meets with a parcel of negro ships carrying whites into slavery to work upon their plantations in a cold climate, should we therefore imagine that he intends a reflection on the present traffic in human flesh? And that, if the negroes should do so, it would be simple justice, as retaliation is the law of God! If we were to think this a reflection on any present commercial or political matter, we should be tempted to imagine, perhaps, some political ideas conveyed in every page, in every sentence of the whole. Whether such things are or are not the intentions of the Baron the reader must judge.”
― Rudolph Erich Raspe, The Surprising Adventures Of Baron Munchausen

tags: slavery

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“Some travellers are apt to advance more than is perhaps strictly true; if any of the company entertain a doubt of my veracity, I shall only say to such, I pity their want of faith, and must request they will take leave before I begin the second part of my adventures, which are as strictly founded in fact as those I have already related.”
― Rudolph Erich Raspe, The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen

tags: fiction, raconteur, truth

1 likes

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Polls

November 2023 Old School Classics Poll

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1890, 129pp

62 votes, 27.7%

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, 65, 254pp

36 votes, 16.1%

My Life by Anton Chekhov, 1896, 150pp

31 votes, 13.8%

The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith, 1889, 176pp

30 votes, 13.4%

A Rose in June: by Margaret Oliphant, 1874, 144pp

27 votes, 12.1%

The Adventures of Baron Münchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe, 1785, 224pp

19 votes, 8.5%

The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1855, 184pp

19 votes, 8.5%

224 total votes

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