Count Harry Kessler (in German, Harry Graf Kessler) was renowned in his day as a patron of the arts, cultural butterfly, and author. His lengthy diaries, which became known only posthumously, after their first publication in 1961 in an edited version, have made him famous as a chronicler of Weimar Germany and the cultural world of Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, he wrote a biography of statesman Walther Rathenau and an autobiography,

Gesichter und Zeiten

(Faces and Times) that was widely read, though it only deals with Kessler’s youth..

Born Harry Clément Ulrich Kessler in Paris, on May 23, 1868, he was the only son of financier Adolf Wilhelm Kessler and Alice Harriet Blosse-Lynch. The former was from a Hamburg banking family, and represented its interests in Paris. The

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Citation: Brantingham, Philip. "Harry Kessler". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12714, accessed 19 March 2024.]

12714 Harry Kessler 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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