Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Cyclopedia of World Authors)

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (GUR-tuh), poet, dramatist, philosopher, scientist, and leader of the German intellectual renaissance of the late eighteenth century, was born to a wealthy Frankfurt lawyer and his wife. Goethe’s poetic gift may well have come from his lively, witty mother, whose love of storytelling was early transmitted to her son. Educated at home in an atmosphere of learning and refinement, the boy displayed an unusual facility for languages and versification.

An unwilling law student at the University of Leipzig at the age of sixteen, his adolescent disgust with...

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