Heinrich Leopold Wagner has been described as "the least noteworthy of the German Storm and Stress writers" and as having been "tactless," "indiscreet," "affected," and above all "unpleasant." His contemporary Philipp Karl Diehl noted in a letter of March 1775 that "seine Gesichtsbildung ist mehr faunisch, als natürlich oder menschlich, und zum aushönen ist er geboren; ich möchte nicht mit ihm umgehen, viel weniger Freund von ihm seyn" (his appearance is more lascivious than natural or human, and he was born to deride. I would not like to associate with him, much less be a friend of his). Even his faithful nineteenth-century biographer Erich Schmidt concluded an analysis of Wagner: "Ich möchte ihm nicht gern zu nahe treten, aber einen erfreulichen Eindruck macht er mir nicht" (I do not wish to be too harsh, but he does not make an agreeable...