The volume is an annotated collection of the extant and reconstructed letters written (107) and received (94) by Arnim in his school and university years up to the beginning of his educative travels. A substantial number of the texts are published here for the first time. The letters and notes are not only of interest for the information they give us about Ludwig Achim von Arnim (1781-1831) himself. His major correspondents ranged from natural scientists working in various disciplines and playing a pioneering role in scientific innovations taking place around 1800 to friends at school and university and relatives belonging to the higher echelons of the Prussian state in an age of thoroughgoing reform.