Background
Friedrich Melchior was born at Regensburg, the son of Johann Melchior Grimm (1682-1749), a pastor, and Sibylle Margarete Grimm, (née Koch) (1684-1774).
Denis Diderot and Friedrich Melchior Grimm, drawing by Carmontelle
Friedrich Melchior was born at Regensburg, the son of Johann Melchior Grimm (1682-1749), a pastor, and Sibylle Margarete Grimm, (née Koch) (1684-1774).
He studied at the University of Leipzig, where he came under the influence of Johann Christian Gottsched and of Johann August Ernesti, to whom he was largely indebted for his critical appreciation of classical literature.
Friedrich Melchior went to Paris in early youth as tutor in the family of Count Schönberg and later served as attachéattache of the Prince of Saxe-Gotha. In Paris Grimm was an intimate and faithful friend of Denis Diderot and came to know Jean Jacques Rousseau, Mme. d'Épinay, Voltaire, and most of the writers of the day.
In 1754 he succeeded Raynal as editor and principal author of a series of secret letters designed to keep subscribers in touch with events in Paris, particularly in the world of arts and letters. This correspondence, which consisted of two letters a month, eventually counted among its readers Catherine II, the Duchess of Saxe-Gotha, and various German princes, and in it Diderot, Meister, and Mme. d'Épinayd'Epinay collaborated. Meister replaced Grimm as editor in 1773 and the letters continued until 1790. Collected and published under the title of Correspondance littéraire,litteraire, philosophique et critique after Grimm's death (the standard edition is that of Tourneux, 16 vol., 1877-1882), they provide a mine of information concerning men and letters in the period preceding the Revolution.
Grimm became the minister of Saxe-Gotha at the French court in 1776. He was in St. Petersburg for nearly the entire year in 1777, when he had almost daily conversations with Catherine II, who later made him her agent in Paris in the purchase of works of art and in 1796 appointed him Russian minister at Hamburg.