Editing Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Zentralbibliothek Zürich - Betsy und Conrad Ferdinand Meyer - 000005100 7.jpg|thumb|Conrad Ferdinand Meyer with his younger sister Betsy, around 1855]]
[[File:Zentralbibliothek Zürich - Conrad Ferdinand Meyer im Kostüm - 000011622.jpg|thumb|Conrad Ferdinand Meyer in a costume, around 1883]]
Meyer was born in [[Zurich (city)|Zürich]]. His father, who died early, was a statesman and historian, while his mother was a highly cultured woman. Throughout his childhood two traits were observed that later characterized the man and the poet: he had a most scrupulous regard for neatness and cleanliness, and he lived and experienced more deeply in memory than in the immediate present.<ref name=Burns/> He suffered from bouts of mental illness, sometimes requiring hospitalization; his mother, similarly but more severely afflicted, killed herself.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Having finished the [[gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]], he took up the study of law, but history and the humanities were of greater interest to him.<ref name=Burns/> He went for considerable periods to [[Lausanne]], [[Geneva]], [[Paris]], and [[Italy]], where he interested himself in historical research. The two historians who influenced Meyer particularly were [[Louis Vulliemin]] at Lausanne and [[Jacob Burckhardt]] at [[Basel]], whose book on the ''Culture of the Renaissance'' stimulated his imagination and interest. From his travels in France and Italy (1857) Meyer derived much inspiration for the settings and characters of his historical novels.<ref name=Americana/> In 1875, he settled at [[Kilchberg, Zurich|Kilchberg]], above Zürich.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Meyer, Konrad Ferdinand|inline=1|volume=18|page=349}}</ref>

Meyer found his calling only late in life; for many years, being practically bilingual, he wavered between French and German. The [[Franco-Prussian War]] brought the final decision. In Meyer's novels, a great crisis often releases latent energies and precipitates a catastrophe. In the same manner, his own life which before the war had been one of dreaming and experimenting, was stirred to the very depths by the events of 1870. Meyer identified himself with the German cause, and as a manifesto of his sympathies published the little epic ''Hutten's Last Days'' in 1871.<ref name=Americana/> After that his works appeared in rapid succession. In 1880, he received an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Zurich]]. He died in his home in [[Kilchberg, Zurich|Kilchberg]] on 28 November 1898, aged 73.<ref name=Burns/>