A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Karsch, Anna Louisa
KARSCH, ANNA LOUISA,
A German poetess, was born December 1st., 1722, in a small hamlet called Nammer, on the borders of Lower Silesia. Her father kept an alehouse; but, dying before Louisa was eight years old, she was taken by a great-uncle, residing in Poland, who taught her to read and write.
Having remained three years with this relative, she returned to her mother, who employed her in household labour and in taking care of the cows. It was at this time that Louisa began to display her fondness for intellectual occupations; but her mother checked her inclinations as much as possible. When she was seventeen she was married to a wool-comber; and, being obliged to share his labour, as well as attend to her household, she had but little leisure to cultivate the muses. She, nevertheless, composed verses while she worked, and on Sunday committed them to paper. After living with this husband for eleven years, she obtained a divorce.
Her poverty induced her to marry Karsch, a tailor, whose dissipated habits threw all the support of the family on Louisa, and rendered her very unhappy. It was at this time that she first began to sell her poems: and she also wandered about the country as an improvisatrice. Her writings having fallen into the hands of several gentlemen, she was encouraged to persevere. In 1755, she removed to Great Glogau, where, for the first time, she gained access to a bookseller's shop.
In 1760, she became acquainted with Baron Cottwitz, a Silesian nobleman, who, travelling through Glogau, was struck with her talents; and, commiserating her distress, he took her with him to Berlin, and introduced her to the circle of literati, and to the king, Frederic William the Second. Here she composed most of the poems that were printed in her collection.
Several small pensions were bestowed upon her; but as she had two children and a brother dependent upon her, they proved insufficient for her support. Frederic William the Second had a house built for her, and she was so anxious to occupy it, that she went into it before the walls were dry. This imprudence cost her her life. She died, October, 1791. Her daughter published her memoirs and some of her poems, in 1792.