Rudolph Erich Raspe

Biography

Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736–1794) was a German writer, scientist, and adventurer who created one of world literature’s most enduring comic characters. Born in Hanover, he studied at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig, becoming a professor of antiquities and a Fellow of the Royal Society. After a scandal involving the theft of coins from a collection he curated, Raspe fled to England, where he published Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia (1785). The book, based on the real Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Münchhausen’s tall tales, became an international sensation. Raspe died in Ireland while prospecting for minerals.