The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Eckstein, Ernst

ECKSTEIN, ĕk-stīn Ernst, German humorist, poet and novelist: b. Giessen, 6 Feb. 1845; d. 1900. From the university he went to Paris, and there completed his comic epos, ‘Check to the Queen’ (1870), and wrote ‘Paris Silhouettes’ (1873), the grotesque night-piece ‘The Varzin Ghosts’ and the ‘Mute of Seville.’ Later he wrote the stories ‘Margherita’; ‘At the Tomb of Cestius’; ‘The Mosque at Cordova.’ He was editor of a literary and critical journal, Hall of Poets, and of a humorous weekly, The Wag, at Leipzig, for some years, and in 1885 settled in Dresden. He also wrote ‘The Claudii’; ‘Aphrodite, a Story of Ancient Hellas’; ‘Decius the Flute-player: a Merry Story of a Musician in Ancient Rome.’ He is distinguished by a polished literary style and careful handling of plots.