Aus meinem Leben, better known as Poetry and Truth, is Goethe's account of his early years. It begins with his birth and childhood in Frankfurt and follows his studies at Leipzig and Strasbourg, his friendships, his first loves and his growth as a writer. Goethe mixes remembered fact with shaping imagination, as the title suggests. The book gives a vivid picture of German life and letters in the eighteenth century and of how a great poet came to understand himself.