Christoph Martin Wieland's literary career spanned six decades. During a large part if not all of that period he was the most widely known and most popular writer of the German language. The prominence was gained, in the opinion of some, by his overemphasis of the erotic (it was Wieland who introduced the word erotisch into German). These critics felt that he ignored the traditional concepts of a literary artist's moral obligations, and he admitted that he never allowed his unmarried daughters to read his writings. He added further fuel to the fire when he questioned from time to time the moral rectitude of other poets, and this issue, along with his mercurial and sometimes combative nature, kept him at or near the center of controversy throughout his life. Negative criticism and contention notwithstanding, a clear majority of his colleagues in the German literary community considered him the...