Three times the Academy of Sciences in Vienna asked Franz Grillparzer to provide more details about his life circumstances - three times in vain. Yet he took this request as an opportunity to recount, in the most extensive prose text he left behind, how it all came to be. Grillparzer speaks of his beginnings, his childhood, his parents' home, his passion for reading, the death of his mother; of his successes and what made him weary of them. He reflects on his existence as a civil servant, which became increasingly repugnant to him. He discusses travel and his aversion to it, his encounters with the Pope and Goethe, his regrets, and brief moments of happiness. It is strange that the manuscript dates back to 1853, as Grillparzer still had almost twenty years to live at that time. It is also peculiar that it only covers events up to 1836. Two years later, he withdrew from public life and thereafter wrote only for posterity.