Joseph Spillmann
Joseph Spillmann (b. at Zug, Switzerland, 22 April 1842; d. at Luxembourg, 23 February 1905) was a Swiss Jesuit children's author. Life He attended the primary school and gymnasium in Zug, but bad health necessitated his leaving his studies and devoting himself to his father's business. At the age of sixteen he resumed his interrupted studies at the Jesuit college of Feldkirch. Having entered the Jesuit novitiate at Gorheim (1862), he was sent, during the Franco-Prussian War (1870), to nurse the sick. Ten years later, when his order was banished from Germany, he went to England to complete his theological studies, and in 1874 was ordained priest. Works Spillmann's importance arises chiefly from his works for the young. He had already shown a poetic gift in his contributions to "Der Hausfreund" (a calendar published by Father Pachtler in 1872), and his work was clearly marked out for him. He was appointed collaborator on the "Stimmen aus Maria-Laach" (founded in 1871) and the "Katholische Missionen" (founded in 1873). Spillmann's literary activity resulted chiefly from his connection with these periodicals, especially the "Katholische Missionen" which he edited from 1880 to 1890. From his "Beilagen für die Jugend" grew seventy portly volumes of