Everyday Life in the German Book Trade: Friedrich Nicolai as Bookseller and Publisher in the Age of Enlightenment

by Pamela E. Selwyn

Overview

In his popular book The Germans (1982), Stanford historian Gordon Craig remarked: "When German intellectuals at the end of the eighteenth century talked of living in a Frederican age, they were sometimes referring not to the monarch in Sans Souci, but to his namesake, the Berlin bookseller Friedrich Nicolai." Such was the importance attributed to Nicolai’s role in the intellectual life of his age by his own contemporaries.

While long neglected by students of the period, who tended to accept the caricature of him as a philistine who failed to recognize Goethe’s genius, Nicolai has experienced a resurgence of interest among scholars reexploring the German Enlightenment and the literary marketplace of the eighteenth century.

This book, drawing upon Nicolai’s large unpublished correspondence, rounds out the picture we have of Nicolai already as author and critic by focusing on his roles as bookseller and publisher and as an Aufkärer in the book trade.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780271027975
Publisher:	Penn State University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2000
Series:	Penn State Series in the History of the Book
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.22(d)

About the Author

Pamela E. Selwyn is a freelance translator whose work has appeared in various publications.

Editorial Reviews

“Occasional repetitions in the presentation do not detract from the outstanding quality of Selwyn’s study.”

—Holger Hanowell, ECCB: Eighteenth Century Current Bibliography

“This is a well-researched, well-written contribution to the literature on Friedrich Nicolai.”

—Pamela Currie, MLR

From the Publisher

Drawing on Nicolai's considerable unpublished correspondence, Berlin- based translator Selwyn goes beyond the caricature of him as a philistine who failed to recognize Goethe's genius, to describe the important role he played in the intellectual life of his age. She rounds out the contemporary picture of him as an author and publisher by focusing on him as a bookseller and publisher and as an rer/> in the book trade. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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