Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm

HOFFMANN, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm, a man of genius, and an extraordinarily clever and eccentric musician and litterateur, who though a voluminous composer will not live by his compositions so much as by some other productions of his pen. He was born at Königsberg Jan. 24, 1776; learned music and law at the same time, and bid fair to rise in the official world; but an irrepressible love of caricaturing put an end to such solid prospects and drove him to music...