Apparently Johanna Schopenhauer, Arthur’s mom, was an author, “the first German woman writer to publish books without making use of a pseudonym,” and “the most famous author in Germany” for a while in the 1820s. She wrote fiction, travelogues, and biography, and Arthur considered her work juvenile, and told her so.
Her wikipedia page gives the story of her bad relationship with her son: how they couldn’t really stand each other, how he blamed her for his father’s suicide, how she left her inheritance solely to Arthur’s sister. She was no fan of his pessimism and I imagine not an avid reader of his philosophy.
-Mark Linsenmayer
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