Obituaries by prominent contemporaries who praise Friedrich von Bodenstedt as a sensitive translator and knowledgeable mediator of Russian, Middle Eastern, and Elizabethan literature; as a journalist of considerable stature; and as a poet who gave pleasure to millions of readers make it difficult to imagine that he was, for a time, headed toward a career in business. Even as a youngster growing up in the Hannoverian town of Peine, where he was born on 22 April 1819, Bodenstedt demonstrated in the verses he composed for birthdays, holidays, and other occasions verbal skills of a high order. His practical-minded father, however, while proud of his son's poetic ability, continually reminded him that no German writer had ever been able to live by his pen alone, enrolled him in a commercial school, and made him promise to stop writing. For a time Bodenstedt tried to obey his father, but he finally gave...