Background
He was born at Ratisbon on the 26th of December 1723. The son of Johann Melchior Grimm (1682–1749), a pastor, and Sibylle Margarete Grimm, (née Koch) (1684–1774).
He was born at Ratisbon on the 26th of December 1723. 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 Gottsched and of J. A. Ernesti, to whom he was largely indebted for his critical appreciation of classical literature.
He rapidly obtained a thorough knowledge of the French language, and acquired so perfectly the tone and sentiments of the society in which he moved that all marks of his foreign origin and training seemed effaced.
In 1748 he accompanied August Heinrich, Count Friesen, to Paris as secretary, and he is said by Rousseau to have acted for some time as reader to Frederick, the young hereditary prince of Saxe-Gotha.
His acquaintance with Rousseau, through a mutual Sympathy in regard to musical matters, soon ripened into intimate friendship, and led to a close association with the encyclopaedists.
It is possible that the origin of the pamphlet is partly to be accounted for by his vehement passion for Mile Fel, the prima donna of the Italian company.
Raynal's letters, Nouvelles littiraires, ceased early in 1755.
Rousseau was induced by his resentment to give in his Confessions a wholly mendacious portrait of Grimm's character.
He was named envoy of the town of Frankfort at the court of France in 1759, but was deprived of his office for criticizing the comte de Broglie in a despatch intercepted by Louis XV.
He was made a baron of the Holy Roman Empire in 1775.
He became minister of Saxe-Gotha at the court of France in 1776, but in 1777 he again left Paris on a visit to St Petersburg, where he remained for nearly a year in daily intercourse with Catherine.
In 1783 and the following years he lost his two most intimate friends, Mme d'fipinay and Diderot.
In 1792 he emigrated, and in the next year settled in Gotha, where his poverty was relieved by Catherine, who in 1796 appointed him minister of Russia at Hamburg.
Grimm had always interested himself in her, and had procured her dowry from the empress Catherine.
The correspondence of Grimm was strictly confidential, and was not divulged during his lifetime.
It embraces nearly the whole period from 1750 to 1790, but the later volumes, 1773 to 1790, were chiefly the work of his secretary, Jakob Heinrich Meister.
His notices of contemporaries are somewhat severe, and he exhibits the foibles and selfishness of the society in which he moved: but he was unbiassed in his literary judgments, and time has only served to confirm his criticisms.
In style and manner of expression he is thoroughly French.
He is generally somewhat cold in his appreciation, but his literary taste is delicate and subtle.
In 1751, Grimm was introduced by Rousseau to Madame d'Épinay, with whom he began a 30-year liaison two years later, which led after four years to an irreconcilable rupture between him, Diderot and Rousseau.