MUNCHHAUSEN, Kant, FRIEDRICH HIERONYMUS, Baron von, a member of an ancient and noble German family, who attained a remarkable celebrity by false and exaggerated tales of his exploits and adventures so that his name has become proverbial. He was b. in 1720 at the family estate of Bodenwerder, in Hanover, served as a cavalry officer in the Russian campaigns against the Turks in 1737-39, and died in 1797. A collection of his marvelous stories was first published in England tinder the title of Baron Hanchhausen's Narrative of his Marvelous Travels and Campaigns in Russia (Lond. 1785). The compiler was one Rudolf Erich Raspe, an expatriated countryman of the baron's. A second edition appeared at Oxford (178,6) under the title of The Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Sporting .Adventares of Baron Munnikhousen, commonly pro nounced Munehausen; us he relates Them over a bottle when surrounded by his friends. Several other editions rapidly followed. In the same year (1786) appeared the first German
edition, edited by the poet Burger; the latest—entitled Des Frelherrn von Nnneiisau.sen wunderbares Reisemund Abenteuer (1849 and 1855)—is enriched by an admit-able introduction by Adolf Ellisen, on the origin and sources of the famousbook, and on the kind of literary fiction to which it belongs. Ellisen's father knew the splendid old braggart in his latter days, and used to visit him. Nevertheless, although Raspe may have derived many of his narratives from Mfinchhausen himself, he appears to have drawn pretty largely from other sources. Several of the adventures ascribed to the baron are to be found in older books, particularly in Behel's Facetia (Strasb. 1508); others in Castiglione's C'ortegiano, and Bildermann's Utopia, which are included in Lange's Delicice Aeademiea (Heilbronn. 1765). Milnehhausen's stories still retain their popularity, especially with the young.