The German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe was born in Hanover in 1736. In life, he had to do all sorts of different things: he was a clerk and librarian, an archaeologist and geologist, a translator and publisher. But Raspe became famous for his book about Baron Münchausen. Such a person really existed—Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Münchausen—and he even served in the Russian army, fought the Turks, and, after retiring, wrote his memoirs. Raspe based his book on that work, which contained many invented feats. In the book, you’ll find incredible adventures of Baron Münchausen—a brave soldier and fantastic storyteller, who flew to the Moon on a cannonball, pulled himself out of a swamp by his hair, and set gunpowder on fire with sparks shooting from his eyes.