Friedrich Schlichtegroll

His brief account of Mozart's life (6000 words) was published in a volume of twelve obituaries Schlichtegroll prepared and called Nekrolog auf das Jahr 1791 ("Necrology for the year 1791").

[3] Nannerl also contacted Johann Andreas Schachtner, an old Mozart family friend from the time of Wolfgang's childhood, and he replied with a kindly letter filled with anecdotes and memories, which Nannerl duly forwarded; Schachtner's remarks also survived and can be read today.

[2] Schlichtegroll's biography competed with another early work by Franz Niemetschek, which relied on the testimony of Mozart's widow Constanze.

According to the Grove Dictionary of Music, "Constanze bought up and destroyed the entire edition of the Nekrolog (the publication containing Schlichtegroll's obituary), apparently disliking its portrayal of her.

On the other hand, through his handling of these materials, Schlichtegroll gave a powerful start to the formation of an "eternal-child" myth that, despite its irrelevance and wrongheadedness, has intruded ever since on every effort of Mozart biography to see its subject whole.