Agnes Sapper (12 April 1852 – 19 March 1929) was a German author of children's literature.
Biography
Sapper was the daughter of Karl Brater, a lawyer, politician, and founder of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and his wife Pauline Pfaff. In 1875, she married Eduard Sapper, a journalist at Blaubeuren. The couple had three sons, two of whom died in childhood. In 1882, the family moved to Neckartailfingen, where two daughters, Anna and Agnes, were born, then to Esslingen am Neckar in 1888, and to Calw three years later.
Encouraged by her husband, Sapper began her writing career in 1882, publishing her first novella In Wasserfluten ("In Floods"). She recounted her experiences as a Sunday school teacher in other novellas: Das erste Schuljahr ("The First School Year", 1894) and Gretchen Reinwalds letztes Schuljahr ("Gretchen Reinwald's Final School Year", 1901). In 1898, after her husband's death, she moved to Würzburg and devoted herself entirely to writing. Her greatest success was with the novel Die Familie Pfäffling ("The Pfäffling Family", 1907), which describes the daily life of a close-knit family centered around their mother, Pauline. The novel was followed by a sequel: Werden und Wachsen ("Becoming and Growing"). She became the most successful author of children's literature in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, alongside Johanna Spyri and Ottilie Wildermuth.
Upon her death, she bequeathed her house and royalties to the city of Würzburg, which turned it into a center for the mentally ill. Agnes Sapper's grave is located in the city cemetery.
