Conrad Ferdinand Meyer

Born in Zürich on October 11, 1825, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer became one of the most important German-language Swiss writers of the nineteenth century. He is remembered chiefly as a poet and historical novelist, with a gift for turning episodes from earlier centuries into tense, elegant stories.

After schooling, he began studying law, but his life was marked by periods of depression and treatment for mental illness. Time spent in places including Lausanne, Geneva, Paris, and Italy deepened his interest in history, and that fascination fed directly into his writing.

Meyer published many of the works for which he is still known in his later years, including historical novellas and poems admired for their careful form and dramatic power. He died in Kilchberg, Switzerland, on November 28, 1898, leaving behind a body of work that helped define literary realism in Swiss writing.