FPG's Autobiographical Sketch
(Berlin, March 6, 1907)

Greve composed the astounding document presented here as German & English parallel texts in March 1907. Professor D. O. Spettigue of Queen's University, had found it soon after he made the spectacular discovery in October 1971 that the Canadian author Frederick Philip Grove had been André Gide's German translator Felix Paul Greve. Spettigue analyzed and quoted from this precious autobiographical outline in his seminal book FPG: The European Years (Ottawa: Oberon, 1973), and rightly called it a blueprint to Grove's two autobiographical books, A Search for America (1927, e-Ed. 2000) and In Search of Myself (1946, e-Ed. 2007).

The full text was first published by Desmond Pacey, who included Greve's introductory letter to his submission for Brümmer's Lexicon in his authoritative edition of The Letters of Frederick Philip Grove (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976, 538-541). His note following his English translation on page 541 reads: "On page 439 of the Lexicon (Vol. 2) the entry on Greve summarizes the substance of this letter. The outline of this autobiography substantially agrees with what Frederick Philip Grove was later to say about his early life, although Grove claimed Swedish nationality and said that he was born sometime between 1871 and 1873.

To: Franz Brümmer, Nauen
From: Felix Paul Greve, Berlin W[est], Nachodstraße 24 [type-script]
Date: March 6, 1907

Source:
First published in the original German and English translation in
Desmond Pacey's exemplary ediion The Letters of Frederick Philip Grove
Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1976, pp. 538-541
Note:
Typescript copy also extant in Spettigue Collection [Mss 57], UM Archives
Original:
Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin
Electronic version & revised translation:
Gaby Divay, UM Archives & Special Collections, © January 2001, rev.2005.

[Submission]:

Ich wurde geboren am 14. II. 1879 zu Radomno, einem deutsch-russischen Grenzort, als Sohn mecklen-burgischer Eltern, die dort vorübergehend ein Gut besassen.
Meine frühere Jugend verlebte ich dann auf einem pommerschen Gutshof, die Jahre meines geistigen Erwachens in Hamburg. Dort absolvirte [sic!] ich die lateinische Realschule St. Pauli, da ich zunächst nach eigener Neigung und nach dem Wunsch meiner Eltern für den Kaufmannsberuf bestimmt war. Eigentlich erst, als ich schon in die Lehre treten sollte, kam mir der Gedanke an die Möglichkeit des Studirens [sic!]: und zwar, wenn ich aufrichtig sein soll, aus einer Art Größenwahn [2] heraus.
Ich war nämlich fest davon überzeugt, daß ich irgendwie einmal in der Welt einen Mittelpunkt abgeben müßte: ich hatte die Absicht, allerlei aus den Angeln zu heben: Mittel und Wege waren mir gleichgültig.
Es folgten ein paar Jahre fieberhafter Vorbereitung auf das Abiturienten Examen. In den alten Sprachen bin ich fast vollständig Autodidakt.
Da mir trotz der ungünstigeUmstände dieser Versuch glänzend gelang -- ich machte mein Abiturientenexamen am Johanneum mit Auszeichnung -- so war ich in meinen weiten, aber noch sehr ungestimmten Plänen bestärkt.
Wenn ich wiederum aufrichtig sein soll,[3] so richteten sich meine Pläne, wenn sie überhaupt Gestalt annahmen, eher aufs Technische als aufs Schönwissenschaftliche.
Ich stellte mir vor, ich werde eines Tages Luftschiffe bauen oder ein leichtes Automobil erfinden, das mit zwei Pferdekräften so viel zu leisten imstande wäre wie heute eins mit fünfzig Pferdekräften. Von solchen Gedanken bin ich noch heute nicht frei.
Trotzdem studierte ich Archäologie und alte Sprachen. Das Studium führte mich, bald eifrig, bald lässig betrieben, nach Bonn, Paris, London, Rom, Neapel, Griechenland und schließlich nach München.

In München begann ich, veranlaßt durch einen blossen Zufall, zu übersetzen, und -- zunächst in parodistischer Absicht -- zu dichten.

Aus Lässigkeit und Verachtung der landesüblichen Karrieren gab ich mein Studium auf, überzeugt, daß ich auf jedem Wege durchs Leben und an meine Ziele gelangen werde. Dieser Überzeugung bin ich noch heute.

Mit dreiundzwanzig Jahren heiratete ich. [4]
Etwa gleichzeitig [5] veröffentlichte ich zweiBändchen Verse, die schlecht sind, sobald man ihre parodistische Absicht [6] außer acht läßt.

Seither lebte ich abwechselnd in Süditalien, der Schweiz, Nordfrankreich und jetzt in Berlin. [7]
Während der vier Jahre meiner Ehe schrieb ich zwei Romane und eine Komödie. [8]
Ich habe die Absicht, in den nächsten Jahren ein paar Werke zu schreiben, die ich für wichtiger halte, als alles, was ich bisher geschrieben habe, obgleich auch in ihnen allerlei Beachtenswertes stecken dürfte.[9]

[Submission]:

I was born as the son of Mecklenburg parents on February 14, 1879, in Radomno, a German Russian border town where my parents temporarily owned a domain.
My early childhood years I spent on an estate in Pomerania, while during those of my budding adolescence I lived in Hamburg. There, I was educated at the Realschule of St. Pauli, since I was destined by my own inclination and by my parents' wishes to pursue a commercial career. When I was about to begin my apprenticeship, I had the idea to engage in studies for a higher education. To be honest, this was a rather megalomanic ambition.[2]

For I had the strong conviction that I was somehow meant to play a central role in the world: I had the intention to revolutionize many things, regardless by what ways or means.
For the f following few years, I feverishly prepared for the high school examinations, as in the classical languages I was essentially self-taught.
Despite these unfavorable conditions, I succeeded in my efforts beyond all expectations, and passed the graduating examinations at the Gymnasium Johanneum with distinction. This encouraged me in my high-flying, yet still nebulous plans. To be quite honest again,[3] my plans, as far as they were taking shape at all, were directed at technological inventions rather than any ventures in the field of the arts.
I imagined that one day I would be building aeroplanes, or inventing light automobiles which would be able to achieve with two horse-powers as much as fifty horse-powers are able to do today. To this very day I am not free from such thoughts.
However, I enrolled in academic programs of archaeology and classical languages instead. My studies, pursued diligently at times, ess intensely at others, led me to Bonn, Paris, London, Rom, Naples, Greece, and eventually Munich.
In Munich, prompted by a pure coincidence, I began translating. I also started to engage -- at first, with satirical intentions -- in creative writing.
Out of indifference and contempt for the common career options I abandoned my studies, for I was still convinced that I would be successful in life and reach my goals no matter which path I followed. This conviction I still harbour today.
At the age of twenty-three I got married.[4]
Around that time,[5] I also published two little volumes of poetry. They are rather bad, as long as one does not see their satirical dimension.[6]
Since then, I have moved in southern Italy, Switzerland, northern France, and finally in Berlin.[7]
In the four years of my married life, I wrote two novels and a comedy.[8] In the next few years, I intend to write a few works I consider far more important than anything I have written so far, even though all sorts of remarkable things may be contained and discovered there as well.[9]

Verzeichnis meiner Schriften / A List of my publications:
Wanderungen (Gedichte), München, 1902 / (Poems)
Helena und Damon, Ein Spiel in Versen, München, 1902 / (Lyrical Play)
Oscar Wilde, eine Studie, Berlin, 1903 / (Essay)
Randarabesken zu Oscar Wilde, Minden, 1903
Fanny Essler, Ein Berliner Roman, Stuttgart, 1905 / (Novel)
Maurermeister Ihles Haus, (Roman), Berlin, 1907 / (Novel)
Der heimliche Adel,, (Komödie) / (Comedy)
(not yet available in print, since I am awaiting a stage production first)

It took some six years before the next edition of Brümmer's Lexikon was published in 1913. Greve had by then assumed his Canadian identity as a teacher named "Fred Grove" in Manitoba's Mennonite communities Winkler and Morden.
Though drastically reduced, Greve's entry on p. 439 of volume 2 still leaves plenty of pointers linking it to Grove's 1927 fictional, and 1946 official biography.

Note that Greve declares to have been married in 1902: it was in December of that year that he and Else von Freytag-Loringhoven, then the wife of his friend August Endell, became lovers. The pair "eloped" with Endell in tow in late January 1903, & spent several months in Palermo, Italy, until Greve was sentenced for fraud to one year in Bonn's prison. They then lived Wollerau, Switzerland, & Paris-Plage, France, before moving back to Berlin in early 1906.

There, they were finally united in matrimony in August 1907. Both became bigamists in North America when they respectively remarried in late 1913 in New York & in August 1914 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

Greve disappeared from Germany in July 1909 by means of a faked suicide. Else followed him to Pittsburgh a year later, where she was arrested for wearing men's clothes & smoking in public on Fifth Avenue [see NY Times Article, Sept. 1910).

The disgraceful year Greve had spent in Bonn prison for fraud in 1903/4 was obviously not mentioned in neither the 1907 submission nor the 1913 published entry. Any reference to it is also lacking in Grove's autobiographies.

Entry [ill.] in the 6th ed. of Brümmer's Authors' Lexicon, 1913 (v.2, p.439
Lexikon der deutschen Dichter und Prosaisten, vom Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart., 6., völlig, neu bearbeitete und stark vermehrte Auflage. Leipzig: Reclam, 1913. 8v. in 4.
v.2, Dennert bis Grütter, 439:

Greve, Felix Paul, geb[oren] am 14. Februar 1879 zu Radomno, einem deutsch-russischen Grenzorte, als der Sohn mecklenburgischer Eltern, die dort vorübergehend ein Gut besaßen, verlebte seine Kindheit auf einem pommerschen Gutshof und die Jahre seines geistigen Erwachens in Hamburg, wo er die lateinische Realschule St. Pauli absolvierte, da er sich dem Kaufmannsberuf widmen sollte. Indes, kurz vor dem Eintritt in die Lehre kam ihm der Gedanke an die Möglichkeit des Studierens. Nach einigen Jahren fieberhafter Vorbereitung bestand er das Abiturientenexamen am Gymnasium Johanneum in Hamburg, und obwohl seine Zukunftspläne mehr auf das Technische gerichtet waren, wandte er sich doch dem Studium der alten Sprachen u[nd] der Archäologie zu. Es führte ihn nach Bonn, Paris, London, Rom, Neapel, Griechenland und schließlich nach München, wo er, durch einen bloßen Zufall veranlaßt, seine Tätigkeit als Übersetzer englischer u[nd] französischer Werke begann. Aus Lässigkeit u[nd] Verachtung der landesüblichen Karrieren gab er nun sein Studium auf, um hinfort als freier Schriftsteller zu wirken. Nach seiner Verheiratung (1902) lebte er abwechselnd in Süditalien, der Schweiz, Nordfrankreich, und jetzt (1906) in Berlin,

Greve, Felix Paul, born on Februar 14th, 1879 in Radomno, a German-Russian bordertown. His parents were from Mecklenburg, but had owned there temporarily a domain. He spent his childhood on a Pomeranian estate, and his early adolescence in Hamburg. There, he went to a "Realschule" in St. Pauli, since he was meant to pursue a commercial career. However, shortly before he was to start his apprenticeship, he considered the possibility of academic studies. After some years of intense preparation, he passed the final examinations for graduating from the Gymnasium Johanneum in Hamburg. Originally planning to engage in technological studies, he decided to enrol in programs of classical languages and archaeology instead. His studies led him to Bonn, Paris, London, Rom, Naples, Greece, and finally to Munich, where, by pure coincidence, he was beginning to translate works of English and French literature. Refusing to embark on any of the most commonly chosen careers, he discontinued his studies, and devoted himself to free-lance writing. After getting married in 1902, he moved successively to the South of Italy, Switzerland, Northern France, and finally, in 1906, Berlin

S: Wanderungen (Ge.), 1902. -- Helena und Damon (Ein Spiel in V.), 1902. -- Oscar Wilde (Literar. Studie), 1903. -- Randarabesken zu Oscar Wilde, 1903. -- Fanny Essler (Berliner R.), 1905. -- Maurermeister Ihles Haus (R.), 1907. -- Tausend und ein Tag (Orient. Erz., übertragen); IV, 1909ff.