MUNCHHAUSEN,
Hier onymus Karl Friedrich, BARON : b. Boden werder, Hanover, 1720; d. there, 1797. He was a German soldier and served in his youth as a cavalry officer in the Russian army. He was possessed of an adventurous and dare-devil spirit and an imagination that knew no bounds. He told the most wonderful stories of his adventures in the Turkish campaign of 1737-39, and soon became famous as the most unique exaggerator that ever lived. The tradi tion of the baron's story-telling is supported by the evidence of a clergyman, who says that in his old days the officer used to relate his most surprising adventures °in a cavalier manner, with a military emphasis, but without any pas sion and with the easy humor of A man of the world, as things which required no explanation or proof.° His tales are thought to have been first compiled by Rudolf Erich Raspe, a man of letters, who, being compelled to flee from his position as curator of the museum at Cassel to England on account of a charge of embezzle ment, was engaged in London in literary pur suits, and is generally believed to have pub lished anonymously an English edition of the stories under the title of
enlarged and ornamented, was published at Ox ford in 1786 under the title of (The Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages and Sporting Adventures of Baron Munnikhouson, commonly pronounced Munchausen; as he relates them over a bottle when surrounded by his
A third edition, published by Kearsley in Lon don the same year, bore the title of
Revived.' The story passed through many edi tions by different hands, gaining more and more accretions each time, whether in form of bor rowings from Lucian or of topical
on Baron de Tolt, Montgolfier, the first balloonist, or Bruce, the explorer of the Nile. One of the best editions is that by Shore '1872), illus trated by Dore, with additions by Theodore Gautier. It is said a large proportion of the hunting tales are derived from Henry Bebel's (Facetim) (1508), while other incidents are bor rowed from Castiglione's
and Bil dermann's
which are included in Lange's
(1765). Consult Miiller-Fraureuth,
deutschen Liigendich tungen auf
(1881). See
TURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN, THE.