Baroness Gertrud von le Fort

Baroness Gertrude von Lefort (1876–1971) is the author of over 20 books (poems, novels, plays, and short stories), honorary Doctor of Theology and 'the greatest contemporary transcendent poet'. Her works are appreciated for their breath-taking profoundness and virtuosity, beauty and actuality of her ideas, and for the sophisticated refinement of the form. Hermann Hesse, who evaluated her talent, proposed her as a candidate for the Nobel Prize. Von le Fort was born in Westphalia, Germany, and studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin. A Protestant of Huguenot descent, von le Fort converted early to Catholicism. Her novel Die Letze am Schafott (The Last or Song at the Scaffold), by far her most famous work, was the basis for Dialogues of the Carmelites.