The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Fastenrath, Johannes

FASTENRATH, Johannes, yō-hän'-nĕs fäs'ten-rat, German poet and story writer: b. Remscheid, 3 May 1839; d. 1908. A brief sojourn in Spain (1864) filled him with a permanent enthusiasm for its land and literature which inspired nearly all his life-work. He translated Juan Diana's comedy &lsquo;Receipt Against Mothers-in-Law&rsquo;; and compiled a series of volumes which are less translations than transcriptions in the spirit of the originals—&lsquo;A Wreath of Spanish Romances&rsquo;; &lsquo;Hesperian Blooms&rsquo;; &lsquo;The Book of My Spanish Friends&rsquo;; &lsquo;Voices of Christmas.&rsquo; He also published several works on the history of Spanish literature; and in Spanish, &lsquo;Passion-Books of a German-Spaniard,&rsquo; a description of the

Oberammergau Passion Play; and &lsquo;Walhalla and the Glories of Germany.&rsquo; A volume of war songs dedicated &lsquo;To the German Heroes of 1870&rsquo; is likewise his.