Grave of Franz Hedrich, author and poet, Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh
This gravestone for the poet and author, Franz Hedrich drew my attention. I had never heard of him, so did a little research and found that in the 1880s he was involved in a scandal that shocked the literary world. His story is as follows…
Franz Hedrich was born in Bohemia (present day Czech Republic) in 1823. As an aspiring poet and author in his youth, he moved in various literary circles and in the 1840s became a close friend of the poet and author Alfred Meissner. Hedrich also dabbled in politics and was at one point elected to the Frankfurt National Assembly as the leader of one of the parties on the extreme left. He was then arrested and exiled for his political views.
In the 1850s Hedrich moved to Munich and would often spend his summers with Meissner. During this time, according to Hedrich, Meissner came to rely on him to review and rewrite much of his new work and this eventually culminated in Hedrich writing several of Meissner’s novels for him, as his ghost-writer. It would, however, appear that Hedrich was unhappy with this as Meissner had promised that the work would appear in their joint names. He also felt that Meissner was pocketing most of the money and ‘awarding him only a trifle.’
In 1871, in Switzerland, Hedrich married Janet Barron of Edinburgh. He then lived with her in Switzerland, France and in Scotland. Janet appears to have been quite wealthy, having inherited a large amount of money after the death of her parents. Whether this played any part in Hedrich falling for her we will never know, however being a man who enjoyed the finer things in life he quickly squandered much of her fortune. Running low on money, he then began to blackmail Meissner threatening to let the world know that he had written the novels. It would seem that through this he obtained substantial sums of money from Meissner for several years. Then in 1885, Meissner could take no more and made a suicide attempt by slashing his own throat. He survived this but died shortly afterwards of sepsis. On his death bed he told his brother in law, Robert Byr, that Hedrich ‘was hunting me like a tiger. He claimed the fortune of my children. He was my evil genius during all my life, and I was his prisoner, so that nothing but death remains for me to escape his bondage.’
A few years after Meissner’s death, a collection of his works was published and included various novels that Hedrich had written. This seems to have annoyed Hedrich and resulted in him writing a pamphlet that was then published by the Berlin firm O. Janke. The same firm who had published Meissner’s work. In this pamphlet Hedrich claimed authorship of most of Meissner’s novels and stated that for almost thirty years Meissner had been claiming to be the author of books that he, Hedrich, had written. To provide proof of his claims he included copies of letters from Meissner and these showed beyond doubt that Hedrich had indeed written several novels attributed to Meissner. Hedrich also pointed out that in several of the novels he had used a simple type of cryptogram to encode the words ‘Autor Hedrich’ to show he was the author of the work.
Robert Byr, Meissner’s brother in law, then made a reply to Hedrich’s accusations. He stated that Meissner had claimed authorship and tried to sell a single novel written by Hedrich. This deed had caused him such remorse that he had then committed suicide. Byr also claimed that Hedrich was only a collaborator in some of Meissner’s novels. The two men had arranged this collaboration as Meissner’s name was well known, and novels appearing under his name would command a greater price than those appearing under Hedrich’s.
On viewing the evidence that Hedrich produced, it was accepted by the literary world that he had indeed written several of the novels appearing under Meissner’s name, and had collaborated on others. However, it was also found that he had overstated his case and claimed authorship of some novels that were purely Meissner’s work.
Hedrich did not fare well in this scandal. He was seen by many as being dishonourable, and too ready to denounce someone who had been his close friend in order to make money. A leading literary magazine of the time wrote of him that - ‘Hedrich had dragged Meissner in the mire…but he has degraded himself beneath the notice of respectable men in doing it.’
Hedrich spent his later years living in the West End of Edinburgh with his wife. He died on 31 October 1895.
kevinnosferatu.blogspot.com/2021/02/skulferatu-20-greyfri...
Grave of Franz Hedrich, author and poet, Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh
This gravestone for the poet and author, Franz Hedrich drew my attention. I had never heard of him, so did a little research and found that in the 1880s he was involved in a scandal that shocked the literary world. His story is as follows…
Franz Hedrich was born in Bohemia (present day Czech Republic) in 1823. As an aspiring poet and author in his youth, he moved in various literary circles and in the 1840s became a close friend of the poet and author Alfred Meissner. Hedrich also dabbled in politics and was at one point elected to the Frankfurt National Assembly as the leader of one of the parties on the extreme left. He was then arrested and exiled for his political views.
In the 1850s Hedrich moved to Munich and would often spend his summers with Meissner. During this time, according to Hedrich, Meissner came to rely on him to review and rewrite much of his new work and this eventually culminated in Hedrich writing several of Meissner’s novels for him, as his ghost-writer. It would, however, appear that Hedrich was unhappy with this as Meissner had promised that the work would appear in their joint names. He also felt that Meissner was pocketing most of the money and ‘awarding him only a trifle.’
In 1871, in Switzerland, Hedrich married Janet Barron of Edinburgh. He then lived with her in Switzerland, France and in Scotland. Janet appears to have been quite wealthy, having inherited a large amount of money after the death of her parents. Whether this played any part in Hedrich falling for her we will never know, however being a man who enjoyed the finer things in life he quickly squandered much of her fortune. Running low on money, he then began to blackmail Meissner threatening to let the world know that he had written the novels. It would seem that through this he obtained substantial sums of money from Meissner for several years. Then in 1885, Meissner could take no more and made a suicide attempt by slashing his own throat. He survived this but died shortly afterwards of sepsis. On his death bed he told his brother in law, Robert Byr, that Hedrich ‘was hunting me like a tiger. He claimed the fortune of my children. He was my evil genius during all my life, and I was his prisoner, so that nothing but death remains for me to escape his bondage.’
A few years after Meissner’s death, a collection of his works was published and included various novels that Hedrich had written. This seems to have annoyed Hedrich and resulted in him writing a pamphlet that was then published by the Berlin firm O. Janke. The same firm who had published Meissner’s work. In this pamphlet Hedrich claimed authorship of most of Meissner’s novels and stated that for almost thirty years Meissner had been claiming to be the author of books that he, Hedrich, had written. To provide proof of his claims he included copies of letters from Meissner and these showed beyond doubt that Hedrich had indeed written several novels attributed to Meissner. Hedrich also pointed out that in several of the novels he had used a simple type of cryptogram to encode the words ‘Autor Hedrich’ to show he was the author of the work.
Robert Byr, Meissner’s brother in law, then made a reply to Hedrich’s accusations. He stated that Meissner had claimed authorship and tried to sell a single novel written by Hedrich. This deed had caused him such remorse that he had then committed suicide. Byr also claimed that Hedrich was only a collaborator in some of Meissner’s novels. The two men had arranged this collaboration as Meissner’s name was well known, and novels appearing under his name would command a greater price than those appearing under Hedrich’s.
On viewing the evidence that Hedrich produced, it was accepted by the literary world that he had indeed written several of the novels appearing under Meissner’s name, and had collaborated on others. However, it was also found that he had overstated his case and claimed authorship of some novels that were purely Meissner’s work.
Hedrich did not fare well in this scandal. He was seen by many as being dishonourable, and too ready to denounce someone who had been his close friend in order to make money. A leading literary magazine of the time wrote of him that - ‘Hedrich had dragged Meissner in the mire…but he has degraded himself beneath the notice of respectable men in doing it.’
Hedrich spent his later years living in the West End of Edinburgh with his wife. He died on 31 October 1895.
kevinnosferatu.blogspot.com/2021/02/skulferatu-20-greyfri...