Ricarda Huch (1864-1947), German novelist, poet, and cultural historian, won renown as a talented writer in several genres.

Ricarda Huch was born in Brunswick (Braunschweig) on Aug. 18, 1864, the daughter of a merchant. She became the first female student admitted to the University of Zurich at a time when women could not study at any German university; she obtained her doctorate in history in 1892. The next years she spent working first as a librarian in Zurich and later as a schoolteacher in Bremen. Her Swiss experiences she later described in a charming book of memoirs, Frühling in der Schweiz (1938).

Huch's first creative phase (1890-1900) is marked by several volumes of lyrical poetry written in neoromantic style: Gedichte (1891) and Neue Gedichte (1907), both later issued under the title Liebeslyrik (1913). Their central theme is that of her love for her cousin Richard Huch, whom she married in 1907 after divorcing her...