FREY, ADOLF Swiss poet, literary historian and critic, son of Jacob Frey, was born at Aarau on Feb. 18, and died at Zurich on Feb. 12, 1920. He became professor of German literature, first at Aarau and then at Zurich. His chief claim to attention is his keen and profound interpretation of Swiss literature and art, as shown in his book on Schweizer Dichter (1919), and in his monographs on Albert von Haller (1879) Gottfried Keller (enlarged edition, 1893), C. F. Meyer (1900), Bocklin (19o3), Koller (1906), Welti (1908), Hodler (192 2) and others. He wrote also two vigorous historical novels, Die Jung f er von JV attenwil (1912) and Bernhard Hirzel (1918) . A final selection of his best Poems was issued in 1922. His lyrics are graceful, and his dialect poems were especially popular. His dramas (e.g., Erni Winkelried, 1893) are less important.
See C. F. Wiegand, Das Adolf Frey Buch (192o) ; L. Frey, Adolf Frey: sein Leben and Schassen (1923).