Elise Polko



Elise Vogel Polko (31 January 1823 in Schloss Wackerbarth – 15 May 1899 in Munich) was a German novelist.

Biography
She was a sister of Eduard Vogel, the African explorer, and attained considerable fame as a public singer, she performed in Leipzig, Dresden, Halle and Berlin. She retired from the stage after her marriage to an engineer named Polko in 1849. She devoted herself to literature where she proved to be equally successful. Her work Musikalische Märchen earned critical praise. Shortly after the death of her terminally ill son, her husband also died in February 1887, leaving her in debt.

Works
Her Musikalische Märchen (Musical tales; 1852) was translated into English, as were others of her books. She published Ein Frauenleben (A woman's life; 1854), Erinnerungen an Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (Recollections of Felix Mendelssohn; 1868), Aus dem Jahre 1870, Conversations (1872), Neues Märchenbuch (1884), and other works.