About the Author: Heinrich Hoffmann
Note: There is more than one Heinrich Hoffman.
Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter (German for either "slovenly Peter" or "shock-haired Peter"), an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.
He wrote under the following names:
- Polykarpus Gastfenger (The given name is the German version of that of a Christian martyr; the surname sounds like "Gastfänger", which could be a common noun for "guest-catcher".)
- Heulalius von Heulenburg
- Heinrich Hoffmann
- Heinrich Hoffmann-Donner (The second half of the compound surname would mean "thunder" as a common noun, or a name for the Germanic thunder-god Thor.)
- Heinrich Kinderlieb (The surname means roughly "love of children")
- Reimerich Kinderlieb
- Peter Struwwel (This name reverses the order of the components of "Struwwelpeter".)
- Zwiebel (As a common noun, this would mean "onion")
In Frankfurt/Germany there is a Heinrich-Hoffmann-Museum Frankfurt.
Hoffmann studied medicine in Heidelberg. From 1851, he was director of the municipal psychiatry in Frankfurt.
He is the subject of the historical novel, 98 Reasons for Being.
Find the best price forStruwwelpeter
Heinrich Hoffmann
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Paperback, Published in Apr 1995 by Dover Publications
ISBN10: 0486284697 | ISBN13: 9780486284699
Page count: 32
First published in 1845. Struwwelpeter (variously translated as "slovenly" or "shock-headed" Peter) has become widely recognized as one of the most popular and influential children's books ever written. Heinrich Hoffmann was a Frankfurt physician. Unhappy with the dry and pedagogic books available for children at the time, he wrote and illustrated Struwwelpeter as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son. The book relates in verse and pictures the often gruesome consequences that befall children who torment animals, play with matches, suck their thumbs, refuse to eat, fidget at meals, etc.
Written in rhyming couplets and illustrated by the author, the book was an immediate success. It has since gone through hundreds of editions and been published in almost every European language. The present volume reprints 25 color plates from a German edition (including a bonus plate done for the 100th edition in 1876) with the reset text of a standard English translation. Also included are the full German text and an afterword with a brief biography of the author and note on how the book came to be written.
Children, bibliophiles, antiquarians — any lover of time-honored tales for children — will welcome this new edition of the classic German story.
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