My Life — Volume 1
- Pages
- about 798
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 15 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
The contents of these volumes have been written down directly from my
dictation, over a period of several years, by my friend and wife, who
wished me to tell her the story of my life. It was the desire of both
of us that these details of my life should be accessible to our family
and to our sincere and trusted friends; and we decided therefore, in
order to provide against a possible destruction of the one manuscript,
to have a small number of copies printed at our own expense. As the
value of this autobiography consists in its unadorned veracity, which,
under the circumstances, is its only justification, therefore my
statements had to be accompanied by precise names and dates; hence
there could be no question of their publication until some time after
my death, should interest in them still survive in our descendants, and
on that point I intend leaving directions in my will.
If, on the other hand, we do not refuse certain intimate friends a
sight of these papers now, it is that, relying on their genuine
interest in the contents, we are confident that they will not pass on
their knowledge to any who do not share their feelings in the matter.
I was born at Leipzig on the 22nd of May 1813, in a room on the second
floor of the ‘Red and White Lion,’ and two days later was baptized at
St. Thomas’s Church, and christened Wilhelm Richard.
My father, Friedrich Wagner, was at the time of my birth a clerk in the
police service at Leipzig, and hoped to get the post of Chief Constable
in that town, but he died in the October of that same year. His death
was partly due to the great exertions imposed upon him by the stress of
police work during the war troubles and the battle of Leipzig, and
partly to the fact that he fell a victim to the nervous fever which was
raging at that time.
A short sample. Read the whole book
More to read
- A Belated Guest (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance)William Dean HowellsHistory19 pages
- A Bit of Old ChinaCharles Warren StoddardHistory17 pages
- A Book of Remarkable CriminalsH. B. IrvingHistory341 pages
- A Book of ScoundrelsCharles WhibleyHistory202 pages
- A Brief History of the Internet The Bright Side: The Dark SideMichael HartHistory59 pages
Public-domain text from Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks or a similar open source. Copyright differs between countries. Rights holder? See our takedown process.