The Brothers Grimm: A Biography

by Ann Schmiesing

Overview

The first English-language biography in over fifty years to tell the full, vibrant story of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, known to history as the Brothers Grimm

A New Yorker “Best Book of 2024” Selection

“Ann Schmiesing . . . has brought the brothers to life in their fullness.”—Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

“Magisterial.”—Kirkus Reviews

More than two hundred years ago, the German brothers Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) published a collection of fairy tales that remains famous the world over. It has been translated into some 170 languages—more than any other German book—and the Brothers Grimm are among the top dozen most translated authors in the world. In addition to collecting tales, the Grimms were mythographers, linguists, librarians, civil servants, and above all the closest of brothers, but until now, the full story of their lifelong endeavor to preserve and articulate a German cultural identity has not been well known.

Drawing on deep archival research and decades of scholarship, Ann Schmiesing tells the affecting story of how the Grimms’ ambitious projects gave the brothers a sense of self-preservation through the atrocities of the Napoleonic Wars and a series of personal losses. They produced a vast corpus of work on mythology and medieval literature, embarked on a monumental German dictionary project, and broke scholarly ground with Jacob’s linguistic discovery known as Grimm’s Law. Setting their story against a rich historical backdrop, Schmiesing offers a fresh consideration of the profound and yet complicated legacy of the Brothers Grimm.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300285574
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	10/07/2025
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ann Schmiesing is professor of German and Scandinavian studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. She lives in Longmont, CO.

Editorial Reviews

Ann Schmiesing tells the tale behind the tales. . . . [She] has brought the brothers to life in their fullness.”—Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

“Schmiesing . . . puts flesh on the bones of myth, and in doing so creates a portrait of familial devotion, passionate intellectual interest and powerful nationalistic sentiment. By bringing Jacob and Wilhelm to life, and setting their lives in context, she demonstrates the power and the danger of these eternal and essential tales—and reminds us why they haunt us still.”—Erica Wagner, Financial Times

“Schmiesing adeptly sets this riches-to-rags-to-renown story against an evocative background of regional history and the tumultuous contemporary political scene.”—Regina Marler, New York Review of Books

“Schmiesing’s biography of the Grimms is the first major English-language one in decades . . . [and] presents findings that complicate the brothers’ image.”—Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker

“Schmiesing brings lots of splendidly gothic-folkloric details into play.”—John Walsh, Sunday Times

“As Ann Schmiesing makes clear, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were far more than just compilers of fairy tales. They were, above all, scholars and celebrants of medieval German language and culture . . . [while] populating our imaginations with immortal characters and the plot arcs of much of our fiction and drama.”—Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“[The brothers’] bond is portrayed with sensitivity and is one of the chief charms of Schmiesing’s book. [The book] is energised by her enthusiasm and affection for her subjects.”—Camilla Cassidy, Telegraph

A New Yorker “Best Book of 2024” Selection

“A biography of the Grimms is amply justified, and Ann Schmiesing chronicles their lives briskly, readably and often vividly, drawing on a huge body of primary and secondary literature.”—Ritchie Robertson, Times Literary Supplement

“First-rate. . . . Rich in history and insight, this stands as the new authoritative biography on the famed fairy tale collectors.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Included in New Statesman’s “Best summer reads 2025”

“Impeccably researched and scholarly. . . . Schmiesing draws a vivid and often light-hearted picture of the Grimms’ circle of collaborators and friends, from gatherings of passionate medieval revivalists to endless bickering over authenticity. She loves her subjects and she conveys the delight of discovery and connection.”—Lucy Lethbridge, Literary Review

“A thought-provoking discussion of the truth that the most dangerous act in the world—the thing with the most lasting and least predictable consequences—is not war or revolution. It is simply writing down the words Es war einmal . . . (‘Once upon a time. . .’) and watching blood, revenge, gory redemption and the immensely satisfying murder of the uncivilised unfold.”—Philip Hensher, The Spectator

“A definitive biography. . . . This is a book that aims to situate the Grimms and their studies of language in the larger historical context of the intellectual and political movements of their time, and in this it succeeds admirably.”—John Gray, New Statesman

“Magisterial.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Engaging.  . . . Readers will delight to learn how tales featuring Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood became and remain central cultural touchstones and beloved tales often shared, read, and reread.”—Bill Kelly, Booklist

“What Ann Schmiesing does so memorably and so well is place [the brothers’] lives and achievements in the context of the upheavals of the Napoleonic era in which they lived. . . . The Brothers Grimm is a pleasure to read, and in its own way is as captivating as any tale that begins with ‘Once upon a time.’”—Jim Kelly, Air Mail, “Editor’s Picks”

“[A] brief, eloquent, and moving biography . . . bound to prove enlightening to English-language readers.”—David Mason, Hudson Review

“Ann Schmiesing’s The Brothers Grimm: A Biography is the most thorough and important study of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the English-speaking world. It demonstrates that the talented brothers were more than collectors of wondrous fairy tales. They were gifted men of integrity once upon a revolutionary time. This book is a major accomplishment.”—Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota

“Schmiesing’s wonderfully lucid and accessible biography of the Brothers Grimm is indispensable reading for all who want to learn about the context, origin, and development of the world’s most famous fairy tale collection.”—Jakob Norberg, author of The Brothers Grimm and the Making of German Nationalism

“At long last—an authoritative biography in English of the remarkable Brothers Grimm. Rich in details and insights, Ann Schmiesing’s unparalleled account draws on up-to-date research and her extensive knowledge of the brothers’ extraordinary lives and times.”—Donald Haase, Wayne State University

From the Publisher

2024-08-30
The real Brothers Grimm are rescued from Disneyfication and myth.

The timeless fairy tales Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected, nurtured, and published have survived to become part of the world’s popular and literary canon. Not so a sense of who the Grimms were and the breadth of what they achieved. Many of the works they published beyond the tales are largely forgotten. Few know of their extensive, often groundbreaking work on mythology and medieval literature, on legends, on a comprehensive German dictionary, Jacob’s scholarship on grammar, or the cultural significance they attached to their various projects. In her thorough, densely detailed biography, Schmiesing restores them to prominence. She places the Brothers Grimm in the context of a tumultuous era preceding 19th-century German unification, exploring the exceptionally close brothers’ personal lives, accomplishments, and striking inconsistencies. For much of the book’s length, the tales take center stage. The surprise is that the Grimms assembled these stories not from peasants telling folktales in the field, but from educated young women, whose recalled narratives the brothers sometimes reworked, not always remembering their own dictum that editing should be “a gentle nurturing that preserves the organic nature of the text.” The Grimms recovered many now-famous stories, wishing to preserve them before they were lost to the forces of urbanization, industrialization, and war. As Schmiesing demonstrates, the aim was not simply to preserve the stories and traditions, but to reveal how they had descended (in their view) from a vast store of ancient epic literature—the collective voice of a people. As such, the tales came to be seen by some as “dangerous,” reflecting a nationalistic fervor and image of Germanness that was “too easily appropriated by Nazi ideology.” Yet, as the author underscores, the Grimms were scholars of high aspirations, not ideologues.

A magisterial, if occasionally overfurnished, rendering of the Grimms’ lives.

Kirkus Reviews