Gottfried August Bürger was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, Lenore, found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English and Russian adaptation and a French translation.
Gottfried August Bürger
Auguste Leonhart, sister of Bürger's wife, and the "Molly" of his poetry.
Dorette Bürger, after a pastel drawing by her sister Auguste in 1781.
Lenardo und Blandine, after Bürger's poem, by Wilhelm Volkhart
"Lenore", sometimes translated as "Leonora", "Leonore" or "Ellenore", is a poem written by German author Gottfried August Bürger in 1773, and published in 1774 in the Göttinger Musenalmanach. "Lenore" is generally characterised as being part of the 18th-century Gothic ballads, and although the character that returns from its grave in the poem is not considered to be a vampire, the poem has been very influential on vampire literature. William Taylor, who published the first English translation of the ballad, would later claim that "no German poem has been so repeatedly translated into English as 'Ellenore'".
Lenore and William riding on horseback, as depicted by Johann David Schubert.
Gottfried August Bürger