of benzene which has been called the “most brilliant piece of prediction to be found in the whole range of organic chemistry,” and this in turn led in particular to the elucidation of the constitution of the “aromatic compounds,” and in general to new methods of chemical synthesis and decomposition, and to a deeper insight into the composition of numberless organic bodies and their mutual relations. Professor F. R. Japp, in the Kekulé memorial lecture he delivered before the London Chemical Society on the 15th of December 1897, declared that three-fourths of modern organic chemistry is directly or indirectly the product of Kekulé’s benzene theory, and that without its guidance and inspiration the industries of the coal-tar colours and artificial therapeutic agents in their present form and extension would have been inconceivable.
Many of Kekulé’s papers appeared in the Annalen der Chemie, of which he was editor, and he also published an important work, Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie, of which the first three volumes are dated 1861, 1866 and 1882, while of the fourth only one small section was issued in 1887.
KELLER, ALBERT (1845– ), German painter, was born at
Gais, in Switzerland; he studied at the Munich Academy under
Lenbach and Ramberg, and must be counted among the leading
colourists of the modern German school. Travels in Italy,
France, England and Holland, and a prolonged sojourn in Paris,
helped to develop his style, which is marked by a sense of elegance
and refinement all too rare in German art. His scenes of society
life, such as the famous “Dinner” (1890), are painted with
thoroughly Parisian esprit, and his portraits are marked by the
same elegant distinction. He is particularly successful in the
rendering of rustling silk and satin dresses and draperies. His
historical and imaginative works are as modern in spirit and as
unacademical as his portraits. At the Munich Pinakothek is
his painting “Jairi Töchterlein” (1886), whilst the Königsberg
Museum contains his “Roman Bath,” and the Liebieg collection
in Reichenberg the “Audience with Louis XV.,” the first picture
that drew attention to his talent. Among other important works
he painted “Faustina in the Temple of Juno at Praeneste,”
“The Witches’ Sleep” (1888), “The Judgment of Paris,” “The
Happy Sister,” “Temptation” (1892), “Autumn” (1893), “An
Adventure” (1896), and “The Crucifixion.”
KELLER, GOTTFRIED (1819–1890), German poet and novelist,
was born at Zürich on the 19th of July 1819. His father, a
master joiner, dying while Gottfried was young, his early education
was neglected; he, however, was in 1835 apprenticed to a
landscape painter, and subsequently spent two years (1840–1842)
in Munich learning to paint. Interest in politics drew him into
literature, and his talents were first disclosed in a volume of short
poems, Gedichte (1846). This obtained him recognition from the
government of his native canton, and he was in 1848 enabled to
take a short course of philosophical study at the university of
Heidelberg. From 1850 to 1855 he lived in Berlin, where he wrote
his most important novel, Der grüne Heinrich (1851–1853; revised
edition 1879–1880), remarkable for its delicate autographic portraiture
and the beautiful episodes interwoven with the action.
This was followed by Die Leute von Seldwyla (1856), studies of
Swiss provincial life, including in Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe
one of the most powerful short stories in the German language,
and in Die drei gerechten Kammmacher, almost as great a masterpiece
of humorous writing. Returning to his native city with a
considerable reputation, he received in 1861 the appointment of
secretary to the canton. For a time his creative faculty seemed
paralysed by his public duties, but in 1872 appeared Sieben
Legenden, and in 1874 a second series of Die Leute von Seldwyla,
in both of which books he displayed no abatement of power and
originality. He retired from the public service in 1876 and
employed his leisure in the production of Züricher Novellen
(1878), Das Sinngedicht, a collection of short stories (1881), and
a novel, Martin Salander (Berlin, 1886). He died on the 15th of
July 1890 at Hottingen. Keller’s place among German novelists
is very high. Few have united such fancy and imagination to
such uncompromising realism, or such tragic earnestness to such
abounding humour. As a lyric poet, his genius is no less original;
he takes rank with the best German poets of this class in the
second half of the 19th century.
Keller’s Gesammelte Werke were published in 10 vols. (1889–1890), to which was added another volume, Nachgelassene Schriften und Dichtungen, containing the fragment of a tragedy (1893). In English appeared, G. Keller: A Selection of his Tales translated with a Memoir by Kate Freiligrath-Kroeker (1891). For a further estimate of Keller’s life and works cf. O. Brahm (1883); E. Brenning, G. Keller nach seinem Leben und Dichten (1892); F. Baldensperger, G. Keller; sa vie et ses oeuvres (1893); A. Frey, Erinnerungen an Gottfried Keller (1893); J. Baechtold, Kellers Leben. Seine Briefe und Tagebücher (Berlin, 1894–1897); A. Köster, G. Keller (1900; 2nd ed., 1907); and for his work as a painter, H. E. von Berlepsch, Gottfried Keller als Maler (1895).
KELLER, HELEN ADAMS (1880– ), American blind deaf-mute,
was born at Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1880. When barely
two years old she was deprived of sight, smell and hearing, by an
attack of scarlet fever. At the request of her parents, who were
acquainted with the success attained in the case of Laura Bridgman
(q.v.), one of the graduates of the Perkins Institution at
Boston, Miss Anne M. Sullivan, who was familiar with the teachings
of Dr S. G. Howe (q.v.), was sent to instruct her at home.
Unfortunately an exact record of the steps in her education was
not kept; but from 1888 onwards, at the Perkins Institution,
Boston, and under Miss Sarah Fuller at the Horace Mann school
in New York, and at the Wright Humason school, she not only
learnt to read, write, and talk, but became proficient, to an exceptional
degree, in the ordinary educational curriculum. In
1900 she entered Radcliffe College, and successfully passed the
examinations in mathematics, &c. for her degree of A.B. in 1904.
Miss Sullivan, whose ability as a teacher must be considered
almost as marvellous as the talent of her pupil, was throughout
her devoted companion. The case of Helen Keller is the most
extraordinary ever known in the education of blind deaf-mutes
(see Deaf and Dumb ad fin.), her acquirements including several
languages and her general culture being exceptionally wide. She
wrote The Story of My Life (1902), and volumes on Optimism
(1903), and The World I Live in (1908), which both in literary
style and in outlook on life are a striking revelation of the results
of modern methods of educating those who have been so handicapped
by natural disabilities.
KELLERMANN, FRANÇOIS CHRISTOPHE DE (1735–1820),
duke of Valmy and marshal of France, came of a Saxon family,
long settled in Strassburg and ennobled, and was born there on
the 28th of May 1735. He entered the French army as a volunteer,
and served in the Seven Years’ War and in Louis XV.’s
Polish expedition of 1771, on returning from which he was made
a lieutenant-colonel. He became brigadier in 1784, and in the
following year maréchal-de-camp. In 1789 Kellermann enthusiastically
embraced the cause of the Revolution, and in 1791
became general of the army in Alsace. In April 1792 he was
made a lieutenant-general, and in August of the same year there
came to him the opportunity of his lifetime. He rose to the
occasion, and his victory of Valmy (see French Revolutionary Wars)
over the Prussians, in Goethe’s words, “opened a new
era in the history of the world.” Transferred to the army on the
Moselle, Kellermann was accused by General Custine of neglecting
to support his operations on the Rhine; but he was acquitted
at the bar of the Convention in Paris, and placed at the head of
the army of the Alps and of Italy, in which position he showed
himself a careful commander and excellent administrator.
Shortly afterwards he received instructions to reduce Lyons,
then in revolt against the Convention, but shortly after the surrender
he was imprisoned in Paris for thirteen months. Once
more honourably acquitted, he was reinstated in his command,
and did good service in maintaining the south-eastern border
against the Austrians until his army was merged into that of
General Bonaparte in Italy. He was then sixty-two years of
age, still physically equal to his work, but the young generals
who had come to the front in these two years represented the
new spirit and the new art of war, and Kellermann’s active
career came to an end. But the hero of Valmy was never forgotten.
When Napoleon came to power Kellermann was named
