Häring, GEORG WILHELM HEINRICH

Häring, GEORG WILHELM HEINRICH, better known under the name of WILIBALD ALEXIS, a German novelist, was born at Breslau, 23d June 1797. He at first studied law at Berlin and Breslau, but abandoned this pursuit for a literary career. His first success as a writer was the historical romance Walladmor (1823-24), published as a work by Sir Walter Scott, a fraud that found belief and led to the book being translated into several languages (into English, very freely, by De Quincey, 1824). This was followed by Die Geächteten (1825) and Schloss Avalon (1827). Häring's subsequent historical romances, the clever character-drawing, historical verisimilitude, and vigorous description of which entitle them to a high rank, are Cabanis (6 vols. 1832), Roland von Berlin (3 vols. 1840), Der falsche Woldeomar (3 vols. 1842), Hans Jürgen und Hans Jochem (2 vols. 1846), Der Wärrwolf (3 vols. 1848), Ruhe ist die erste Bürgerpflicht (5 vols. 1854), Isegrimm (3 vols. 1854), and Dorothe (3 vols. 1856). Besides these, he wrote books of travel, sketches, dramas, and other works. His Gesammelte Werke were published at Berlin in 20 vols. in 1874, the historical romances as Vaterländische Romane in 8 vols. in 1884. He died 16th December 1871.