Born in 1861 in Russia, Lou Andreas-Salome is best known for the famous company she kept. But as this book reveals, her relationships with Nietzsche, Rilke and Freud were complex and she had profound influences on each of them. This biography brings us up close to her writing as well as to her life and meeting with Tolstoy, Wagner and other remarkable men. It explores, in depth, her relationship with Nietzsche who saw in her a natural heir to his philosophy. Only since knowing her I was ripe for my Zarathustra, he wrote.Salome's marriage was to last for 45 years, yet never be consummated. She had her first love affair at age 36, with a twenty-one-year-old Rilke. He wrote, ...through the relentless force of your words, my work become consecrated.At fifty Salome met Freud and studied under him for two years. Freud had a special admiration for Lou Andreas Salome, wrote Ernest Jones. She pent the rest of her life as a psychoanalyst; her friendship with Freud was to last until her death in 1937.