Munchausen

Munchausen, Baron, the hero of the world-renowned adventures which have made his name a byword for mendacity, is believed to have really existed in the person of Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Munchhausen, of Bodenswerder in Hanover, who died in 1797. He appears to have told his marvellous history to one Raspe. Raspe seems to have added many marvels borrowed from earlier impostors, and in 1786 published anonymously a small volume in London as the result, of his labours. Several enlarged editions speedily followed, but their authorship remains unknown. In 1787 Burger translated the book into German, and was for years regarded as the original writer, but in 1824 his publisher revealed the truth.