Voss
Voss names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Voss JOHANN HEINRICH, a German poet
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHANN HEINRICH, a German poet; born in Sommersdorf, Germany, Feb. 20, 1751. He received a scanty school education, acted for a time as private tutor in a family, and in 1772 went to Göttingen, where he studied the classical and modern languages, and was one of the founders of the Göttingen Dichterbund, or Poet's Union. In 1775 he retired to Wandsbeck, in order to edit the "Almanac of the Muses," which he published till 1800. In 1778 he became rector of a school at Otterndorf, in Hanover, and in 1782 went as rector to Eutin. In 1805 he became professor at Heidelberg. Between 1785 and 1802 he published several volumes of original poems, the best of which is the idyl, "Luise." Among his translations that of Homer's works is undoubtedly the greatest, being the classical German version of these great epi epics. A translation of Shakespeare, which he undertook with his sons, was published in nine volumes in 1829. He died in Heidelberg, March 29, 1826.
Voss GERHARD JOHANN (fos)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
GERHARD JOHANN (fos), usually styled Vossius, a Dutch philologist; born near Heidelberg, in 1577. In certain departments of archæophilology he made valuable original researches; and he was the first to indicate the historical evolution of the Latin language. Among his writings are: "Essays on Rhetoric; or, The Institutes of Oratory," his greatest work (1606); "The Greek Historians" (1624); "The Latin Historians" (1627); "Aristarchus; or, On the Art of Grammar" (1635); "Of Errors of Speech and Latino-Barbarous Terms" (1640); "Heathen Theology" (1642); "The Times of the Ancient Poets" (1654); "Etymology of the Latin Language" (1662). The "Correspondence of Vossius with Eminent Men" was published in 1691. He died in Amsterdam, March 19, 1649.
Voss RICHARD, a German poet
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
RICHARD, a German poet; called the "Tired Man"; born in Neugrape in Pomerania, Prussia, Sept. 2, 1851. Among his dramatic compositions are: "Savonarola"; "Magda"; "The Patrician Dame"; "Lu "; "Luigia Sanfelice"; "Father Modestus"; "Woe to the Vanquished"; "Eve"; "Betwixt Two Hearts"; "At Sedan." In narrative verse he wrote: "Roman Village "A Hill Asylum"; "Among his novels Tales"; "Messalina.' are: "Life Tragedy of an Actress"; "The New Romans"; "Children of the South"; "Villa Falconieri"; "Amata"; "The Sabine"; etc. He excels in description of Italian lowly life.
Voss JULIUS VON, a German storywriter
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JULIUS VON, a German storywriter; born in Brandenburg, Germany, Aug. 24, 1768. His rapidity of liter ary production was almost without a parallel. His best story is "The Schildbürger" (The Fooltownite: 1823). He wrote a great many comedies, farces, and satirical parodies. In "The Strah lau Haul of Fish" (1822, a popular piece with songs, in the Berlin patois) he gives the first example of the Berlinese farce. He died in Berlin, Nov. 1, 1832.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
All four men were long dead when Collier's compiled these notes in 1921 — with one slip: Richard Voss, described in the present tense as the living "Tired Man," had in fact died in 1918. The biographical facts otherwise stand, but the reputations have moved sharply. Johann Heinrich Voss's hexameter Homer is still discussed as the founding German version of the epics, though modern readers reach for twentieth-century translations and his once-celebrated idyl "Luise" is now read almost only by specialists; Gerhard Johann Vossius is still credited in histories of philology with pushing Latin grammar toward historical explanation. Richard Voss, a bestselling name in 1921, and Julius von Voss, remembered chiefly for launching the Berlin dialect farce, have both dropped out of general currency.
Written for this edition, 2026.