In 1935, Hermann Hesse wrote two major hexameter poems: the timeless, famous idyll "Hours in the Garden" and "The Lame Boy," a poignant memory of a figure from his childhood in Calw, a deformed, limping boy slightly older than him, "who had a look of quietly mocking knowledge for every healthy person, containing more contempt than envy." Hesse describes how, as a ten-year-old, he was initiated into all the secrets of fishing and the local stream by this patient companion of two summers, using a minimum of means, in a way that showcases his characteristic sensual plasticity. This book has long been out of print. In response to numerous reader requests, it is now being reissued, beautifully illustrated by Gunter Böhmer. "We take this volume as a unity in which the essential aspects of Hermann Hesse's spiritual and emotional world are reflected.".