Gottfried Keller

Gottfried Keller (19 July 1819 – 15 July 1890) was a Swiss poet and writer of German literature. Best known for his novel Green Henry (German: Der grüne Heinrich) and his cycle of novellas called Seldwyla Folks (Die Leute von Seldwyla), he became one of the most popular narrators of literary realism in the late 19th century.

Early life

His father was Rudolf Keller (1791–1824), a lathe-worker from Glattfelden; his mother was a woman named Elisabeth Scheuchzer (1787–1864). The couple had six children, four of whom died, meaning Keller only had his sister Regula (*1822) left. After his father died of tuberculosis, Keller's family lived in constant poverty, and, because of Keller's difficulties with his teachers, in continual disagreement with school authorities. Keller later gave a good rendering of his experiences in this period in his long novel, Der grüne Heinrich (1850–55; 2nd version, 1879). His mother seems to have brought him up in as carefree a condition as possible, sparing for him from her scanty meals, and allowing him the greatest possible liberty in the disposition of his time, the choice of a calling, etc. With some changes, a treatment of her relations to him may be found in his short story, “Frau Regel Amrain und ihr jüngster” (in the collection Die Leute von Seldwyla).

Career

Keller's first true passion was painting. Expelled in a political mix-up from the Industrieschule in Zürich, he became an apprentice in 1834 to the landscape painter Steiger and in 1837 to the watercolourist Rudolf Meyer (1803–1857). In 1840, he went to Munich (Bavaria) to study art for a time at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.