Chapter 24

Many of Kekulé’s papers appeared in theAnnalen 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 Parisianesprit, 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 byDie Leute von Seldwyla(1856), studies of Swiss provincial life, including inRomeo und Julia auf dem Dorfeone of the most powerful short stories in the German language, and inDie 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 appearedSieben Legenden, and in 1874 a second series ofDie 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 ofZüricher 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’sGesammelte Werkewere 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 (seeDeaf and Dumbad fin.), her acquirements including several languages and her general culture being exceptionally wide. She wroteThe Story of My Life(1902), and volumes onOptimism(1903), andThe 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 yearmaréchal-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 (seeFrench 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 namedsuccessively senator (1800), honorary marshal of France (1803), and duke of Valmy (1808). He was frequently employed in the administration of the army, the control of the line of communications, and the command of reserve troops, and his long and wide experience made him one of Napoleon’s most valuable assistants. In 1814 he voted for the deposition of the emperor and became a peer under the royal government. After the “Hundred Days” he sat in the Chamber of Peers and voted with the Liberals. He died at Paris on the 23rd of September 1820.

See J. G. P. de Salve,Fragments historiques sur M. le maréchal de Kellermann(Paris, 1807), and De Botidoux,Esquisse de la carrière militaire de F. C. Kellermann, duc de Valmy(Paris, 1817).

His son,François Étienne de Kellermann, duke of Valmy (1770-1835), French cavalry general, was born at Metz and served for a short time in his father’s regiment of Hussars previous to entering the diplomatic service in 1791. In 1793 he again joined the army, serving chiefly under his father’s command in the Alps, and rising in 1796 to the rank ofchef de brigade. In the latter part of Bonaparte’s celebrated Italian campaign of 1796-97 the younger Kellermann attracted the future emperor’s notice by his brilliant conduct at the forcing of the Tagliamento. He was made general of brigade at once, and continued in Italy after the peace of Campo Formio, being employed successively in the armies of Rome and Naples under Macdonald and Championnet. In the campaign of 1800 he commanded a cavalry brigade under the First Consul, and at Marengo (q.v.) he initiated and carried out one of the most famous cavalry charges of history, which, with Desaix’s infantry attack, regained the lost battle and decided the issue of the war. He was promoted general of division at once, but as early as the evening of the battle he resented what he thought to be an attempt to belittle his exploit. A heated controversy followed as to the influence of Kellermann’s charge on the course of the battle, and in this controversy he displayed neither tact nor forbearance. However, his merits were too great for his career to be ruined either by his conduct in the dispute or by the frequent scandals, and even by the frauds, of his private life. Unlike his father’s, his title to fame did not rest on one fortunate opportunity. Though not the most famous, he was perhaps the ablest of all Napoleon’s cavalry leaders, and distinguished himself at Austerlitz (q.v.), in Portugal under Junot (on this occasion as a skilful diplomatist), at the brilliant cavalry combat of Tormes (Nov. 28, 1809), and on many other occasions in the Peninsular War. His rapacity was more than ever notorious in Spain, yet Napoleon met his unconvincing excuses with the words, “General, whenever your name is brought before me, I think of nothing but Marengo.” He was on sick leave during the Russian expedition of 1812, but in 1813 and 1814 his skill and leading were as conspicuous as ever. He retained his rank under the first Restoration, but joined Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and commanded a cavalry corps in the Waterloo campaign. At Quatre Bras he personally led his squadrons in the famous cavalry charge, and almost lost his life in the mêlée, and at Waterloo he was again wounded. He was disgraced at the second Restoration, and, on succeeding to his father’s title and seat in the Chamber of Peers in 1820, at once took up and maintained till the fall of Charles X. in 1830 an attitude of determined opposition to the Bourbons. He died on the 2nd of June 1835.

His sonFrançois Christophe Edmond de Kellermann, duke of Valmy (1802-1868), was a distinguished statesman, political historian, and diplomatist under the July Monarchy.

KELLGREN, JOHAN HENRIK(1751-1795), Swedish poet and critic, was born at Floby in West Gothland, on the 1st of December 1751. He studied at the university of Åbo, and had already some reputation as a poet when in 1774 he there became a “docent” in aesthetics. Three years later he removed to Stockholm, where in conjunction with Assessor Carl Lenngren he began in 1778 the publication of the journalStockholmsposten, of which he was sole editor from 1788 onwards. Kellgren was librarian to Gustavus III. from 1780, and from 1785 his private secretary. On the institution of the Swedish Academy in 1786 he was appointed one of its first members. He died at Stockholm on the 20th of April 1795. His strong satiric tendency led him into numerous controversies, the chief that with the critic Thomas Thorild, against whom he directed his satireNyt försök till orimmad vers, where he sneers at the “raving of Shakespeare” and “the convulsions of Goethe.” His lack of humour detracts from the interest of his polemical writings. His poetical works are partly lyrical, partly dramatic; of the plays the versification belongs to him, the plots being due to Gustavus III. The songs interspersed in the four operas which they produced in common, viz.,Gustaf Vasa,Gustaf Adolf och Ebba Brahe,Aeneas i Kartago, andDrottning Kristina, are wholly the work of Kellgren. From about the year 1788 a higher and graver feeling pervades Kellgren’s verses, partly owing to the influence of the works of Lessing and Goethe, but probably more directly due to his controversy with Thorild. Of his minor poems written before that date the most important are the charming spring-songVinterns välde lyktar, and thesatiricalMina löjenandMan eger ej snille för det man är galen. The best productions of what is called his later period are the satireLjusets fiender, the comic poemDumboms lefverne, the warmly patrioticKantat d.1.jan.1789, the odeTill Kristina, the fragmentSigwart och Hilma, and the beautiful songNya skapelsen, both in thought and form the finest of his works. Among his lyrics are the choicest fruits of the Gustavian age of Swedish letters. His earlier efforts, indeed, express the superficial doubt and pert frivolousness characteristic of his time; but in the works of his riper years he is no mere “poet of pleasure,” as Thorild contemptuously styled him, but a worthy exponent of earnest moral feeling and wise human sympathies in felicitous and melodius verse.

HisSamlade skrifter(3 vols., 1796; a later edition, 1884-1885) were revised by himself. His correspondence with Rosenstein and with Clewberg was edited by H. Schück (1886-1887 and 1894). See Wieselgren,Sveriges sköna litteratur(1833-1849); Atterbom,Svenska siare och skalder(1841-1855); C. W. Böttiger inTransactions of the Swedish Academy, xlv. 107 seq. (1870); and Gustaf Ljunggren’sKellgren, Leopold, och Thorild, and his Svenska vitterhetens häfder(1873-1877).

KELLOGG, CLARA LOUISE(1842- ), American singer, was born at Sumterville, South Carolina, in July 1842, and was educated in New York for the musical profession, singing first in opera there in 1861. Her fine soprano voice and artistic gifts soon made her famous. She appeared as prima donna in Italian opera in London, and at concerts, in 1867 and 1868; and from that time till 1887 was one of the leading public singers. She appeared at intervals in London, but was principally engaged in America. In 1874 she organized an opera company which was widely known in the United States, and her enterprise and energy in directing it were remarkable. In 1887 she married Carl Strakosch, and retired from the profession.

KELLS,a market town of county Meath, Ireland, on the Blackwater, 9¾ m. N.W. of Navan on a branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 2428. The prosperity of the town depends chiefly upon its antiquarian remains. The most notable is St Columbkille’s house,originallyan oratory, but afterwards converted into a church, the chancel of which was in existence in 1752. The present church is modern, with the exception of the bell-tower, rebuilt in 1578. Near the church there is a fine though imperfect specimen of the ancient round tower, 99 ft. in height; and there are several ancient crosses, the finest being that now erected in the market-place. Kells was originally a royal residence, whence its ancient nameCeanannus, meaning thedunor circular northern fort, in which the king resided, and the intermediate nameKenlis, meaning head fort. Here Conn of the Hundred Fights resided in the 2nd century; and here was a palace of Dermot, king of Ireland, in 544-565. The other places in Ireland named Kells are probably derived fromCealla, signifying church. In the 6th century Kells, it is said, was granted to St Columbkille. Of the monastery which he is reported to have founded there are no remains, and the town owes its chief ecclesiastical importance to the bishopric founded about 807, and united to Meath in the 13th century. The ecclesiastical establishment was noted as a seat of learning, and a monument of this remains in theBook of Kellsan illuminatedcopy of the Gospels in Latin, containing also local records, dating from the 8th century, and preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. The illumination is executed with extraordinary delicacy, and the work is asserted to be the finest extant example of early Christian art of this kind. Neighbouring antiquities are the church of Dulane, with a fine doorway, and thedunor fortification of Dimor, the principal erection of a series of defences on the hills about 6 m. W. of Kells. Among several seats in the vicinity is that of the Marquess of Headfort. Kells returned two members to the Irish parliament before the Union.

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