IN: Robert Walser (15 April 1878 - 25 December 1956) was a German-speaking Swiss writer. Walser is understood to be the missing link between Kleist and Kafka. "Indeed," writes Susan Sontag, "At the time [of Walser's writing], it was more likely to be Kafka [who was understood by posterity] through the prism of Walser. Robert Musil, another admirer among Walser's contemporaries, when he first read Kafka pronounced [Kafka's work] as, 'a peculiar case of the Walser type.'

In 1898, the influential critic Joseph Victor Widmann published a series of poems by Walser in the Bernese newspaper Der Bund. This came to the attention of Franz Blei, and he introduced Walser to the Art Nouveau people around the magazine Die Insel, including Frank Wedekind, Max Dauthendey and Otto Julius Bierbaum. Numerous short stories and poems by Walser appeared in Die Insel. Until 1905, Walser lived mainly in Zurich, though he often changed lodgings and also lived for a time in Thun, Solothurn, Winterthur and Munich. In 1903, he fulfilled his military service obligation and, beginning that summer, was the "aide" of an engineer and inventor in Wadenswil near Zurich. This episode became the basis of his 1908 novel Der Gehulfe (The Assistant). In 1904, his first book, Fritz Kochers Aufsatze, appeared in the Insel Verlag. At the end of 1905 he attended a course in order to become a servant at the castle of Dambrau in Upper Silesia. The theme of serving would characterize his work in the following years, especially in the novel Jakob von Gunten (1909). In 1905, he went to live in Berlin, where his brother Karl Walser, who was working as a theater painter, introduced him to other figures in literature, publishing, and the theater. Occasionally, Walser worked as secretary for the artists' corporation Berliner Secession. In Berlin, Walser wrote the novels Geschwister Tanner, Der Gehulfe and Jakob von Gunten. They were issued by the publishing house of Bruno Cassirer, where Christian Morgenstern worked as editor. Apart from the novels, he wrote many short stories, sketching popular bars from the point of view of a poor "flaneur" in a very playful and subjective language. There was a very positive echo to his writings. Robert Musil and Kurt Tucholsky, among others, stated their admiration for Walser's prose, and authors like Hermann Hesse and Franz Kafka counted him among their favorite writers. Walser published numerous short stories in newspapers and magazines, many for instance in the Schaubuhne. They became his trademark. The larger part of his work is composed of short stories - literary sketches that elude a ready categorization. Selections of these short stories were published in the volumes Aufsatze (1913) and Geschichten (1914).

Was that his first published work?

OUT: In 1904, his first book, Fritz Kochers Aufsatze,

IN: George Washington (February 22, 1732 - December 14, 1799) was an American statesman and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and later presided over the 1787 convention that drafted the United States Constitution. As a driving force behind the nation's establishment he came to be known as the "father of the country," both during his lifetime and to this day. Washington was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia to a family of wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves, which he inherited.

George Washington was the first child of Augustine Washington and his second wife Mary Ball Washington, born on their Popes Creek Estate near Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was born on February 11, 1731, according to the Julian calendar and Annunciation Style of enumerating years then in use in the British Empire. The Gregorian calendar was adopted within the British Empire in 1752, and it renders a birth date of February 22, 1732. Washington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave, England. His great-grandfather John Washington immigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, George's father Augustine. Augustine was a tobacco planter who also tried his hand at iron manufacturing, and later he was the Justice of the Westmoreland County Court. In Washington's youth, his family was moderately prosperous and considered members of Virginia's "country level gentry" of "middling rank," rather than one of the leading wealthy planter elite families. His wife Sally was also a friend of Washington and an early romantic interest, and maintained correspondence when she moved to England with her father, but most of the letters were intercepted by the British during the war. Lawrence Washington inherited a plantation from their father on the Potomac River at Little Hunting Creek which he named Mount Vernon in honor of his commanding officer Vice Admiral Edward Vernon. Washington inherited Ferry Farm upon his father's death and eventually acquired Mount Vernon after Lawrence's death. The death of his father prevented Washington from an education at England's Appleby Grammar School such as his older brothers had received. He achieved the equivalent of an elementary school education from a variety of tutors, as well as from a school run by an Anglican clergyman in or near Fredericksburg. His education totaled seven or eight years, while he lived with relatives at various places that included the Westmoreland and the Chotank regions of Virginia, as well as Ferry Farm and Mount Vernon. He was trained in mathematics, trigonometry, and surveying that developed a natural talent of draftsmanship and map making. He was also an avid reader and purchased books on military affairs, agriculture, and history, as well as the popular novels of his times. There was talk of securing an appointment for him in the Royal Navy when he was 15, but it was dropped when his widowed mother objected. In 1751, Washington traveled with Lawrence to Barbados (his only trip abroad) in the hope that the climate would be beneficial to Lawrence's declining health, as he was suffering from tuberculosis. Washington contracted smallpox during the trip, which left his face slightly scarred but immunized him against future exposures to the disease. Lawrence's health failed to improve, and he returned to Mount Vernon where he died in the summer of 1752. His position as Adjutant General (militia leader) of Virginia was divided into four district offices after his death, and Washington was appointed by Governor Dinwiddie as one of the four district adjutants in February 1753, with the rank of major in the Virginia militia. He also became a freemason while in Fredericksburg during this period, although his involvement was minimal.

What was wrong with his health?

OUT:
he was suffering from tuberculosis.