LOUIS CHARLES ADELBERT VON CHAMISSO (1781-1838) was a member of the old and aristocratic French family Chamisso de Boncourt, who were expelled from France by the Revolution, in which they lost their estates. Adelbert lived with his parents in Berlin, where he subsequently entered the Prussian army, accompanied the navigator Otto von Kotzebue on a voyage round the world, and then held for some years an appointment at the Botanic Garden in Berlin, where he died. He was a very versatile writer. Besides his lyrics and the fantastic story of _Peter Schlemihl_, which gained him a name in German literature, he wrote _De animalibus quibusdam e classe vermium Linnæi_, _Über die Hawaiisprache_, and _Bemerkungen und Ansichten auf einer Entdeckungsreise unter Kotzebue_. HEINRICH HEINE (1799-1856) was born at Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents. He devoted himself to a mercantile calling at Hamburg for a while, then studied law at Berlin, Bonn, and Göttingen, adopted Christianity in 1825, edited the _Political Annals_ in company with Murhard, lived at Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg, and finally in Paris, where he received a pension for his literary services up to his death. MORITZ GOTTLIEB SAPHIR was born in 1795 at a small Hungarian town, where his grandfather, under the decree of the Emperor Joseph II. compelling the Jews to take family names, had adopted the name of Saphir. Intending at first to become a merchant, this idea soon grew distasteful to him. He went to Prague to study the Talmud; then began to devote himself entirely to literature, and soon wrote some verses, which showed his satirical talent. At Vienna his satirical muse made him so many enemies that he went to Berlin, where he wrote and edited a great many humorous books. He was obliged to leave Berlin also, and going to live at Munich, he got into trouble on account of some satirical passages which were supposed to refer to the King of Bavaria, and which resulted in his imprisonment. He died at Baden, near Vienna, in 1858. WILHELM HAUFF was born at Stuttgart in 1802, studied theology at Tübingen, became tutor in a private family at Stuttgart, and subsequently edited a paper in that town. He aimed at improving the public taste, which had been greatly influenced by H. Clauren. With this object he wrote a novel, _The Man in the Moon_, purporting to be written by Clauren. Having lost the ensuing law-suit, Hauff wrote his celebrated _Controversy about the Man in the Moon_. He also wrote _Die Memoiren des Satans_, _Lichtenstein_, _Die Bettlerin von Pont des Arts_, _Die Phantasien im Bremer Rathskeller_, etc. He died at Stuttgart, September 18th, 1827. EDUARD MÖRIKE (1804-1875), born at Ludwigsburg, studied at Tübingen, was pastor at Keber-Sulzbach, near Heilbronn, then teacher at Stuttgart. He belonged to the Suabian school of poets, wrote verses and novels, among the latter, _Das Stuttgarter Hutzelmännlein_, _Iris_, _Idylle am Bodensee_, etc.