Fanny Tarnow

Franziska Christiane Johanna Friederike "Fanny" Tarnow (17 December 1779, Güstrow – 4 July 1862, Dessau) was a German writer. She wrote under the names Fanny Tarnow and F. T.

Family background Fanny Tarnow was the first child of the lawyer and secretary of state in Güstrow David Tarnow, later a Gutsbesitzer or landholder, and his wife, Amalie Justine Holstein. She grew up in wealthy circles, but was unable to walk well after a terrible fall when she was just four years old. The majority of her childhood was spent at her family home and that of her aunt Wilhelmine von le Fort (1771–1841). From 1807 to 1812, she was a governess in Wismar and Rankendorf, then until 1815 she went to nurse her ill mother in Neu-Buckow.

From 1816 to 1818, she lived with a childhood friend in Saint Petersburg, where she met Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, August von Kotzebue and Count Jacob Johann Sievers. This was followed by temporary stays in Berlin and at her sister's house in Lübeck. Fanny and the writer Amalie Schoppe also headed a girls' reformatory in Hamburg. In 1820 Fanny moved to Schandau - during this time she befriended Helmina von Chezy, Elisa von der Recke, Ludwig Tieck, Christoph August Tiedge and countess Egloffstein. She then temporarily lost her sight due to illness and so in 1829 she moved to stay in Weißenfels with her sister Betty.

Worried friends then selected some of her writings and published then on a subscription basis, raising 5,000 Taler for her. After that she mainly worked translating French and English works into German. From 1841 she lived in Dessau. Tarnow hosted literary salons that attracted writers, intellectuals, and other people of note

Works (anonymous:) Alwine von Rosen, in: Journal für deutsche Frauen, 1805 und 1806 Thekla Natalie. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des weiblichen Herzens, 1812 Thorilde von Adlerstein, oder Frauenherz und Frauenglück. Eine Erzählung aus der großen Welt, 1816 Mädchenherz und Mädchenglück. Erzählungen für Gebildete, 1817 Kleine Erzählungen, 1817 Briefe auf einer Reise nach Petersburg, an Freunde geschrieben, 1819 Lilien. Erzählungen, 4 Bde. 1821/25 Sidoniens Witwenjahre, nach dem Französischen frei bearbeitet, 2 Tle., 1822 Lebensbilder, 2 Bde., 1824 Die Spanier auf Fühnen. Historisches Schauspiel, 1827 Ausgewählte Schriften, 15 Bde., 1830 Zwei Jahre in Petersburg. Aus den Papieren eines alten Diplomaten, 1833 Erzählungen und Novellen, fremde und eigene, 2 Tle., 1833 Reseda, 1837 Spiegelbilder, 1837 Galerie weiblicher Nationalbilder, 2 Tle., 1838 Gesammelte Erzählungen, 4 Bde., 1840–42 Heinrich von England und seine Söhne. Eine alte Sage neu erzählt, 2 Tle., 1842