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Peters, professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of Cologne, offers a study of the life, work, and illness of Johann Christian Friedrich Hoelderlin (1770-1843), a German poet born in the obscure southwest German village of Lauffen on the Neckar river. Though a descendent of a long line of Protestant clergy, his name, poetry, and creative reputation sank into almost complete obscurity in the nineteenth century. Hoelderlin was rediscovered in our time and acclaimed as a great elegiac poet. Today we know that his writings influenced the sweeping rhythms of Stefan George, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Georg Trakl, in part even the selection of certain Lieder by Johannes Brahms.
With the expectation of becoming a clergyman himself, Hoelderlin studied theology, philosophy, and Greek civilization at the University of Tuebingen (1788-1793), where he came to know Hegel and Schelling; shortly thereafter, in Jena, he met Schiller, Goethe, and Fichte. He formed a Dichterbund, that is, a brotherhood of poets which, once a week, over a glass of wine or beer, recited contemporary literary works, sang the Marseillaise, and extolled ancient Greece as the fountain of artistic creation, immortal philosophy, and political liberty. With Schiller's aid, Hoelderlin, under the title of Magister, became a tutor of young children and completed his novel Hyperion, one of his best known creations among his numerous and often moving works of art. He wrote elegies, hymns, odes, dramatic and philosophical essays of great linguistic beauty, coined impressive neologisms and, always living in poverty, prepared in 1799 to publish a literary journal to earn enough money in order to continue composing poetry without having to tutor. This project, however, came to naught. He also translated Sophocles and Pindar into German, obtaining for a