Editing Wilhelm Busch (section)

===Later life===
[[File:Busch Grab.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Busch's grave in Mechtshausen]]
Biographer Weissweiler does not dismiss the possibility that Busch's increasing [[alcohol dependence]] hindered self-criticism.<ref name="weiss232">Weissweiler, pp. 232–234</ref> He refused invitations to parties, and publisher Otto Bassermann sent him to Wiedensahl to keep his alcohol problem undetected from those around him. Busch was also a heavy smoker, resulting in symptoms of severe [[nicotine poisoning]] in 1874. He began to illustrate drunkards more often.<ref name="weiss232" />

Dutch writer [[Marie Anderson (Dutch writer)|Marie Anderson]] corresponded with Busch. More than fifty letters were exchanged between January and October 1875 in which they discussed philosophy, religion, and ethics.<ref>Kraus, p. 58</ref> Although only one Anderson letter survives, Busch's letters are in manuscripts.<ref>Weissweiler, p. 237</ref> They met in [[Mainz]] in October 1875, after which he returned to Bassermann at [[Heidelberg]] in a "horrible mood". According to several people at the time, Busch's failure to find a wife was responsible for his conspicuous behaviour. There is no evidence that Busch had a close relationship with any woman after that with Anderson.<ref>Weissweiler, pp. 252–253</ref>

Busch lived with his sister Fanny's family after her husband Pastor Hermann Nöldeke's death in 1879. His nephew Adolf Nöldeke remembers that Busch wanted to move back to Wiedensahl with the family.<ref>Diers, p. 119</ref> Busch renovated the house, which Fanny looked after even though Busch was a rich man,<ref name="weiss270" /> and became "father" to his three young nephews. She would, however, have preferred to live in a more urban area for the education of her sons. For Fanny and her three sons, Busch could not replace their former idyllic life. The years around 1880 were psychically and emotionally exhausting for Busch, who was still reliant on alcohol. He would not invite visitors to Wiedensahl; because of this Fanny lost contact with her friends in the village,<ref name="weiss270">Weissweiler, pp. 270–271</ref> and whenever she questioned his wishes, Busch became furious.<ref>Wesslng, p. 161</ref> Even his friends Otto Friedrich Bassermann, [[Franz von Lenbach]], [[Hermann Levi]] and [[Wilhelm von Kaulbach]] were not welcome at the house; he would meet them in [[Kassel]] or [[Hanover]].

Busch stopped painting in 1896 and signed over all publication rights to [[Bassermann Verlag]] for 50,000 [[German gold mark|gold marks]].<ref>Weissweiler, p. 332.</ref> Busch, now aged 64, felt old. He needed spectacles for writing and painting, and his hands trembled slightly. In 1898, together with his aging sister Fanny Nöldeke, he accepted Bassermann's suggestion to move into a large parsonage in Mechtshausen.<ref>Weissweiler, p. 334</ref> Busch read biographies, novels and stories in German, English and French. He organized his works and wrote letters and poems. Most of the poems from the collections ''Schein und Sein'' and ''Zu guter Letzt'' were written in 1899.<ref>Kraus, p. 153</ref> The following years were eventless for Busch.

He developed a sore throat in early January 1908, and his doctor detected a weak heart. During the night of 8–9 January 1908 Busch slept uneasily, taking [[camphor]], and a few drops of [[morphine]] as a tranquilizer. Busch died the following morning before his physician, called by Otto Nöldeke, came to assist.<ref>Weissweiler, p. 344</ref>