The Poor Man of Toggenburg - Autobiography of Ulrich Bräker

In 1788 Bräker wrote a supplement to his autobiography, bringing it up to date, but since his life had been fairly uneventful in the interval, his real purpose seems to have been to complain about the way his neighbours, and even his family, resented his "poor innocent authorship":

"[...] Reading and writing is again more than ever become a need that I cannot deny. Even if all I did were to scribble the most commonplace things in my diary, or study old almanacs! Yet I have no lack for books. For even though my little income can make no provision for them, yet there are enough friends to humanity both near and far who indulge my thirst for knowledge and novelty, and supply me free of charge with everything that finds its way into our isolated country of Tockenburg. May God reward them for these good deeds, in this world and the next.

[...] Is it any wonder that while at my favourite pastime, my compulsion, to throw down on paper my own thoughts as well, I could not resist, and at last indeed was tempted to order them into the little complete work that lies before you. But for sure I would never have let the idea rise in my simple brain of sharing such muddled stuff with the public whom I sincerely respect, if our excellent Pastor Imhof (whose sharp sight misses nothing that goes on in our widespread commune of Wattwil), had not discovered my humble self, honoured me with undeserved attention and at length his friendship and confidence, and led me gradually step by step on the risky track of authorship, novice as I was though already four and fifty years old

[sic]

Threadbare as it was, I now handed over my blotched scribble with fear and trembling to do with it as he would. He destined it in fact at once for the Schweizer-Musaeum, which has appeared in Zürich for some years, and I had a firm intention to clothe it differently when I had leisure to do so, and where possible to cleanse it at least of the grossest errors. This trouble I was lucky enough to be relieved from (for polishing my writing was never my strong point and I think that it would never have been completed in all eternity) by the editor of the aforementioned monthly magazine, a friend of my dear pastor's, Herr F. of Z., who since then (on July 7th of the year 1788) while on a journey though the Tockenburg with his dear gentle wife granted me the favour of a short but unforgettable visit. I only regret that exactly at that time a disagreeable event had set me in a dark mood, which I could not readily overcome. Now the aforementioned gentleman wishes out of his generosity to bring out a special edition of my extraordinary story, and to follow it, extracts from my diaries in a more fitting form. Now so be it! [...]"

The "Swiss Museum" was a learned monthly journal, published in Zürich. "Museum" implied a collection inspired by the Muses, rather than of relics of the past. This "Supplement" was followed by the dialogue "Peter and Paul", see the entry for 8th April below.

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This passage was published in the book edition of the autobiography in 1789. "Herr F. of Z." was of course Bräker's publisher, Johann Heinrich Füssli (1745-1832). In his notes to the book edition Füssli writes that he greatly enjoyed the visit to Bräker, and that Bräker's "dark mood" only made him "all the more worthy of affection".

Although Füssli was obviously a very prominent citizen of Zürich and well known in his day, it has proved more difficult to find a detailed account of his life than for prolific writers such as Lavater and Gessner. The patrician clan of Zürich into which he was born produced many scholars, artists and publishers, the best known in England being the "Fuseli" who illustrated the writings of Blake and was at one time the lover of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Johann Heinrich Füssli was the son of a painter and art historian. He received a good education, including a period of study in Geneva, during which he criticised the authoritarian Calvinist regime and visited the exiled Rousseau, which caused much scandal at home. In 1763