Goethe's Werke, Vol. V-VI bound in two.
[Fuller, S(arah) Margaret] [Goethe, Johann von]. Goethe’s Werke. Volume 5 and 6 Bound in Two. Stuttgart and Tubingen: in der J.G. Cott's Buchhandlung, 1828.
16mo, (i-iv), 578 pp.; (i-iv) 515 pp.; (i-iv) 516 pp.; (i-iv) 507 pp.; some small closed tears to a few pages; interiors sound and clean; brown gilt-stamped calf with green marbled paper over boards; leather badly dried and cracked, hinges starting; chip on Vol. 13-14 at top right corner of spine, 1 x 1.” In specially made cloth slipcases.
Margaret Fuller's copies of four volumes of Goethe's Works, including Volume 12, Faust. Each of the two volumes signed by her on the front free endpaper, S.M. Fuller. Third and most important edition of Goethe's Works, the "Pocket Edition," publication of which the author supervised personally, and the final edition prior to his death.
The influence of Goethe's writings on Fuller, especially, of the Transcendalists, cannot be overstated. Margaret Fuller's first book, "Conversations with Goethe," published in 1839, was a translation and more. Fuller's interest in German literature brought her to the attention of the religious and philosophical dissenters, later known as the Transcendentalists, at an early eage. By 1832, Carlyle's articles had spurred her to read thoroughly the German writers, particularly Goethe. In 1836 Emerson organized the Transcendental Club, of which Fuller was a key participant. According to Fuller scholar Joel Myerson, the Transcendentalists espoused the Romantic ideas of "Nature as a substitute for Reveltation" and "Poetic celebration of nature's spiritual significance," concepts that were taken from Goethe's writings (among others). In an article in "American Monthly," Fuller postulated that German literature alone provided "counterpoise to American utilitariansim." By 1838, George Ripley — a fellow Transcendentalist — asked Fuller to write a biography of Goethe for his "Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature." While the project was abandoned ultimately, Fuller read and re-read Goethe and in 1839 published her translation/critique "Conversations with Goethe."
She initiated her famous "conversations" in the same year (1939) and according to Capper, "The Romantic Age was itself the age of the conversation and de Stael...Goethe and many other great Romantic thinkers must have given Fuller further stimulus for developing her intellectual conversations among women." The conclusion easily reached is that, steeped as she was in Goethe's writing, philosophy, thinking and life, it profoundly effected every aspect of her life. Not only was Goethe the subject of her writing and a key to her philosophical development, his influence extended to precipitating the very activiity that renders her unique in American letters: her 'conversations.' In fact, she wrote, “...he comprehends every feeling I ever had so perfectly, express it so beautifully, but when I shut the book, it seems as if I had lost my personal identity..."
Fuller had borrowed James Freeman Clarke's set of Goethe's works which she returned when she acquired her own set in 1839, "posthumous works and all." Cotta's 1827-1830 edition to which were added the posthumous publications, an additional 15 volumes up to 1839 and another five volumes after 1839). Clarke's set was the 40-volume set. The four volumes offered here are part of the set acquired by Margaret Fuller herself, used and treasured by her. Her biographer notes that she made voluminous notes from the books, notes obviously too verbose for marginalia. The books are free of marginalia as are the volumes at the Houghton Library described below. In 1950 a donor made a gift to Harvard Library of Volumes 21-34, 37, 44, 51-55 of "Goethe's Werke" with Fuller's signature at the front free endpapers as here. Fuller's translation of "Conversations with Goethe" had an enormous impact on Goethe's reputation in America, and certainly launched the career of a major American literary critic.
Print Inquire