Most successful and best loved of the anacreontic poets, popular promoter of Frederick II, friend and mentor to two generations of younger writers, and indefatigable correspondent, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim spent the bulk of his long years in the city of Halberstadt just northeast of the Harz Mountains. Acquainted with virtually every noted writer of his age, Gleim tended and nourished his friendships with care and not a little jealousy, and in his later years earned the affectionate title "Vater" (Father) Gleim for his generous and continuing support of younger poets. Poetry and letters--documents of an age of sentiment, quickening patriotism, and energetic literary activity--are his legacy. In addition to the anacreontic verses that dominate his immense production, he published popular collections of verse fables, romances, patriotic songs, adaptations from the Minnesang (medieval German love poetry), didactic pieces, and epigrammatic poetry. Many of his poems were set to...