German writer's work on anaesthetic cut short (6)
I believe the answer is:
goethe
'german writer's' is the definition.
(johann wolfgang von goethe)
'work on anaesthetic cut short' is the wordplay.
'work' becomes 'go' ('go' can be a synonym of 'work').
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'anaesthetic' becomes 'ether' (ether is a kind of anaesthetic).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'ether' with its final letter taken away is 'ethe'.
'go'+'ethe'='GOETHE'
(Other definitions for goethe that I've seen before include "Eighteenth to nineteenth century German poet and dramatist (Faust)" , "Poet's" , "German author (Faust)" , "Johann Wolfgang von -, German dramatist" , "Wolfgang von - , Faust author" .)