Thekla von Gumpert (1810–1897)

Thekla von Gumpert was born in Kalisch, Germany (present-day Kalisz, Poland), the third of five children of Christian Gottlieb von Gumpert, a district physician, and his wife Henriette. In 1815, her father was transferred as a medical officer to Posen, where Thekla became the friend and playmate of Princess Wanda, daughter of the Duke-Governor, Prince Anton Radziwiłł and his wife, Princess Louise of Prussia. Thekla's father died when she was 22 years old, and she lived on the family's estate for some time until it had to be sold. Then she went to live with a relative, Baron von Seydlitz, whose children she educated. After the death of Princess Wanda, Thekla moved to Dresden to take over the upbringing of her friend's children until the princess's widower remarried. She then went to live with her mother in Berlin.
At age 46, Thekla married
Franz von Schober, a Weimar diplomat and poet, but the couple separated after a few years. She then supported herself with her prolific writing. Her first book, Der kleine Vater und das Enkelkind (The Little Father and the Grandchild), had appeared in 1843. Over the next few decades, she became one of the most widely-read and best-known writers for young people and children of her time.
Her periodical Das Töchteralbum (The Daughter Album) grew into a library of 43 volumes from 1855 to 1897. She also published an autobiography in 1893.