Friedrich Gottlieb, was born July 2, 1724, at Quedlinburg in Prussian Saxony, and was educated first at the gymnasium of that town, and afterwards at the Schulpflege near Naumburg. Here he paid great attention to the ancient classics, and formed the resolution of writing a great epic poem. The choice of a subject perplexed him; but at this time the reign of the Emperor Henry I., known as Henry the Fowler, seems to have attracted him most. In 1745 he studied theology at Jena, and commenced in solitude the first canto of his Messiah. In Leipzig, where he went next year, he formed an acquaintance with Cramer, Schlegel, Rabener, Zacharias, and others, who were then publishing the Breslauer Beiträge. The first three cantos of the Messiah appeared in this periodical in 1748, and excited universal attention. They made a still greater impression in Switzerland; and when their author visited that country in 1750, the people looked upon him with a sort of veneration. In Denmark, too, they met with a very favourable reception; and Klopstock was invited to Copenhagen by the minister Bernstorff, with a small pension to finish the poem. Setting out in 1751, he travelled through Brunswick and Hamburg, and in the latter city made the acquaintance of Meta Moller, whom he married in the summer of 1754. The steps by which his acquaintance with this lady ripened into love are described with great beauty and simplicity in his well-known letters, written when she had become his wife, to Samuel Richardson, and afterwards published in that novelist's correspondence. Four years after his marriage he had the misfortune to lose his wife, who died in childbirth in 1758. From 1759 to 1766 he resided alternately at Brunswick, Quedlinburg, and Blankenburg, and afterwards at Copenhagen. In 1764 he published his Hermann's Schlacht (Battle of Arminius), and sent it to the Emperor Joseph, but not with the success which, in his patriotic enthusiasm, he had promised himself. After this he entered upon his investigations into the German tongue. In 1771, after the dismissal of Bernstorff, Klopstock left Copenhagen for Hamburg, as secretary to the Danish legation, and counsellor of the Margraviate of Baden. In Hamburg he finished the Messiah. In 1792 he married a second time. His principal amusement in winter was skating; and he was more than once in imminent danger of losing his life by it. He died March 14, 1803. His body was buried with great pomp and solemnity in the presence of thousands of spectators. A complete edition of his works was published at Leipzig, in 12 vols. 4to, 1798-1817; and they have been since reprinted in a 12mo form. The hundredth anniversary of his birth was celebrated at Quedlinburg and Altona, July 2, 1824. A monument has been erected in his honour in the former town. (For a critique on his style and works, see POETRY.)