Franz Michael Felder

Felder, Franz Michael (Schoppernau, Vorarlberg, 1839-69, Bregenz), self-taught and of peasant stock, wrote realistic narrative works, in which the social conditions of his home country were critically viewed, including the dominance over the peasantry of the Roman Catholic clergy. He published the story Nümmamüllers und das Schwarzokaspale (1863), a collection of Novellen, Sonderlinge (2 vols., 1867), and the novel Reich und Arm (1868). His work would probably never have been published but for the encouragement of Professor R. von Hildebrand (1824-92). His autobiography (Aus meinem Leben), of value both as a social document and as literature, was not published until 1904.