Goethe and His Publishers

Goethe's ranging literary genius, nimble yet luminous, resists simple
classification. Poet and natural philosopher, critic and raconteur,
Goethe was the most commanding literary presence of his time.

Goethe and His Publishers organizes for the first time the myriad
details of Goethe's career in print. Director of the German publishing
company Suhrkamp Verlag, Siegfried Unseld brings a singular perspective
to this biography, focusing our attention on an essential component of
Goethe's literary endeavors: his relationship to his publishers.
Carefully examining each work, Unseld covers the range of Goethe's
oeuvre, from first anonymous publications to eventual monumental
editions brought out by Johann Friedrich Cotta, the most renowned
publisher of his day.

Unseld sifts through the rich correspondence between Goethe and his
publishers, as well as letters to and from friends, colleagues, and
contemporaries. Analyzing publishing contracts, draft contracts, and
historical documents, Unseld reveals the tremendous energy Goethe
exerted on behalf of his manuscripts. During negotiations he was
sometimes circumspect and reserved, other times demanding and assertive.
These exchanges not only shed new light on Goethe's complex character
but also show how he changed the author's role in the publishing
process. Thus, this work offers a penetrating study on the intricate and
many-tiered relations between author and publisher, then and today.

Goethe and His Publishers celebrates Goethe's works, his life,
and his times, from the viewpoint of a publisher today. Written by an
individual who has devoted much of his life to the study of the poet
whom he reveres, such a personal approach not only forms an excellent
introduction to Goethe's work but helps restore Goethe to his rightful
place in the world of letters.

Siegfried Unseld (1924-2002) was the publisher of Suhrkamp Verlag in Frankfurt for fifty years. He was also a scholar of German literature and wrote four books on Goethe, includingGoethe and His Publishers, published in translation by the University of Chicago Press.