Ludwig Kalisch was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

-German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Jewish novelist.

When only twelve years of age he left his home and became successively pedler, merchant, and teacher. He saved enough money to carry him through matriculation and the study of medicine and, later, languages and literature in Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

 and Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. Settling in Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

 in 1843, he became editor of the Narrhalla (1843–46). A participant in the revolution of 1848-49

Revolutions of 1848 in the German states

The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, also called the March Revolution – part of the Revolutions of 1848 that broke out in many countries of Europe – were a series of loosely coordinated protests and rebellions in the states of the German Confederation, including the Austrian Empire...

, he was forced to leave Germany. He went to Paris, in 1850 to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and from 1851 onward lived in Paris.

Literary works

Kalisch's forte was the humorous ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

. Many of his writings appeared in the feuilleton

Feuilleton

Feuilleton was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle of the latest fashions, and epigrams, charades and other literary trifles...

s of the newspapers and in magazines.

Of those published separately may be mentioned:

• "Das Buch der Narrheit," Mainz, 1845;
• "Schlagschatten," ib. 1845;
• "Poetische Erzählungen," ib. 1845;
• "Shrapnels," Frankfurt am Main, 1849;
• "Paris und London," ib. 1851;
• "Heitere Stunden," Berlin, 1872;
• "Bilder aus Meiner Knabenzeit," Leipzig, 1872;
• "Gebunden und Ungebunden," Munich, 1876;
• "Pariser Leben," Mainz, 1881, 2d ed. 1882.