In the enclosed letter, which I ask you to read, a New York-based admirer1 of my Zarathustra reports that he is willing to "provide the proper respect" due to my writings in general by writing an English essay in his country. The enclosed list of his own writings,2 its literary and cultural-historical contents, seems to give some guarantee: it even signifies that we are dealing with a major international literary personage. Decide entirely at your discretion whether to consent to his request. Basically, all my experience suggests that my effectiveness begins peripherally and only from there will flow back to the "Fatherland." I was just informed that they have made a very extensive general survey of recent German historical-literature in the Florentine Archivio Stor[ico]3 that does much honor to my point of view in the 2nd Untimely M[editation]. — Tell me briefly what should be done. In the corresponding case, I will still write a few words to New York.

Sincerely your
most humble
Prof. Dr Nietzsche

Address until June 4: Turin (Italia) ferma in posta

Parisians are just wildly enthusiastic for — the St. Matthew Passion!!1 Le Figaro, literally Le Figaro! has devoted an entire page2 to a sheet of music: the melancholy aria "Have mercy, my God" ... Here Carignano Theater closed, of course with Carmen:3 it ran for two months. 3 other operas4 were offered to the public: they turned them down one after the other. The number of performances was astounding to me: the work was performed several times three evenings in a row. At the end, very respectable gifts for the maestro Mugnone,5 gold Remontoir watch and so forth.

Operetta composers seem to have control of the orchestras in Italy: I have two cases in mind here. Canti6 e.g., the composer of "la nuova befana"7 uses his position as maestro to put himself on stage in other ways; in entr'actes a song or a symphony "composed especially for this evening". —

I am not my best. Forgive me if I write something briefly. You must accept the money from Kürbitz1 at all costs, otherwise I cannot even place my orders when I need to! Perhaps you no longer remember what I wrote from Turin. This time I want all my ham needs [sent] from Naumburg. Last summer I obtained it from Basel, from Zurich, from St. Gallen and elsewhere, with all sorts of displeasure and disappointment: so that I would not want to repeat it. As you can imagine, I always had to pay for it with my health when an order was poor or not entirely satisfactory. What actually agreed with me was only the very last Naumburg parcel from September: the fat, rolled, Lachsschinken-wurst.2 So I wrote from Turin that this time I would be sensible from the start and not make all sorts of bad experiments. Since my summer is about 4 months long, I need at least 12 pounds = 6 kilos of Lachsschinken. This is all of my evening meals for 4 months. If you had any idea about how difficult it is just to feed myself here with the hugely expensive tourist conditions, you would understand immediately that this very monotonous and boring diet is, relatively, by far the cheapest and also healthiest for me. I can absolutely no longer afford to take any risks; the more regular [I am] the better. In a big city like Turin, of course, all sorts of variety is available to me: but not here (— it immediately becomes terribly expensive, since a very simple lunch cost 2 frs. 25 ct. = 19 groschen (without tip). — If it is not a bother, my good mother, give me the right address for a shop in Gotha or in Braunschweig. What I would prefer of course is what I imagined as follows: that you would choose the ham yourself and then ship it (— the transport costs would of course also be paid by me too —)[.]

I have finished the small sausage: it was too dry due to its small size. The larger one is better, but not nearly as good as the fat round one from last autumn. I think you would do well to send really big ones. The 3 pounds sent are enough for a total of 14 days: that means I have enough to eat for just 6 days.

Don't be angry that I'm giving you such trouble: but please could you send immediately a larger shipment than the last time, and of the very best. The costs are of no consequence to me, if it turns out to be very good and wholesome, please pay a little more, provided that it is top-quality. — And please go to Kürbitz!!!!

Unfortunately, the honey did not agree with me at all: just like last summer. I started to vomit. It's waxy honey: but my stomach knows no other way of dealing with wax. —

I am enclosing the one letter from the Lama3; the other will follow the next time so that the postage isn't double. I am surprised that Lisbeth said nothing about the 8 letters I wrote to her from Nice this winter.

With love
Your old creature[.]

I did not even thank you for your warm letter.4 Coming to Naumburg, given my health conditions, is of course not possible: it is not a hobby that condemns me to the Engadine and to Nice[.] — —

The arrival of two works by your pen, for which I am much obliged to you, seems to me to vouch that my literature has now come into your possession.1 The task of giving you a picture of myself, whether as a thinker, or as a writer and poet, seems to me extremely difficult. The first major attempt of this kind was made last winter by the distinguished Dane Dr. Georg Brandes, who may be known to you as a literary historian. He held a long cycle of lectures about me at the University of Copenhagen, under the title "The German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche," the success of which, according to all that has been reported to me from there, must have been brilliant. He has produced a lively interest in the boldness of my posited problems in an audience of 300 people and has, as he himself says, made my name popular throughout the North.2 Apart from that, I have a more secretive audience and group of admirers to which some Frenchmen also belong, like Mr. Taine.3 My deepest conviction is that these problems of mine, this entire position of an "immoralist" is still too premature for the present time, much too unprepared. The thought of propaganda is completely remote from my mind; I have not yet lifted a finger in that regard.

Of my Zarathustra, I believe that it is about the most profound work that exists in the German language, also, linguistically, the most perfect. But to empathize with4 this will also require entire generations who first have to gain5 the inner experiences by virtue of which this work was able to develop. I would almost recommend to start with the latest works, which are the most far-reaching and important ("Beyond Good and Evil" and "Genealogy of Morality"). To me, the most sympathetic are my middle books, "Dawn" and "The Joyful Science" (they are the most personal).

The "Untimely Meditations," youthful writings in a certain sense, deserve the greatest attention for my development. In "Times, Nations and Men" by Karl Hillebrand6 are some very good essays about "Untimely." The work7 against Strauss caused a great storm; the work8 about Schopenhauer, whose reading I particularly recommend, shows how an energetic and instinctively affirmative mind knows how to retain the most beneficent stimuli even from a pessimist. For a few years which belong to the most valuable ones of my life, I was a close confidant of Richard Wagner and Frau Cosima Wagner and on most intimate terms with them. If I now belong to the opponents of the Wagnerian movement, there are, as is self-evident, no mesquine9 motives behind this. In the Collected Works of Wagner, Volume IX (if I recall correctly) is a letter to me, which testifies to our relationship.1

Please accept, esteemed sir, the most sincere regards of

Professor Dr. Nietzsche.

1. See above letter to E. W. Fritzsch. On May 7, 1888, Nietzsche advised C. G. Naumann to send copies of his writings to Knortz in New York. Two works by Knortz are in Nietzsche's library, presumably sent by Knortz: Amerikanische Gedichte der Neuzeit. Frei ins Deutsche übertragen von Karl Knortz. Leipzig: Wartig (Hoppe), 1883; Walt Whitman. Vortrag gehalten im Deutschen Gesellig-Wissenschaftlichen Verein von New York am 24. März 1886. New York: Hermann Bartsch, 1886.
2. In April-May 1888 (April 10, 17, 24, May 1, 5), Brandes held five lectures on Nietzsche. The lectures were reported with notices (presumably by Brandes) in the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Politiken, which also published a biographical article on Nietzsche (again, presumably by Brandes) on April 20.
3. Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893): French historian and critic. See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
4. nachzufühlen.
5. nachholen (to catch up with).
6. Karl Hillebrand (1829-1884). See his entry in Nietzsche's Library.
7. Unzeitgemäßen Betrachtungen, I: David Strauss. Der Bekenner und der Schriftsteller. (Untimely Meditations I: David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer). 1873.
8. Unzeitgemäßen Betrachtungen, III: Schopenhauer als Erzieher. (Untimely Meditations III: Schopenhauer as Educator). 1874.
9. French: "petty" or "mean."
10. Richard Wagner, "An Friedrich Nietzsche." In: Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, June 23, 1872. Reprinted in Richard Wagner, Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen. Bd. 9. Leipzig: Fritzsch, 1873, 350.

Reinhart and Irene von Seydlitz.
From b/w photo, ca. 1875.
Colorized and enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

Sils-Maria, June 28, 1888:
Letter to Reinhart von Seydlitz.

Dear friend,

I would like to express my most humble thanks to your esteemed mother for her greetings.

Your
Friend Nietzsche.

1. Reinhart von Seydlitz acknowledged receiving Nietzsche's 05-13-1888 letter from Turin, when it finally "tracked him down" in Munich after an "unsuccessful and breathless chase through the continents." Seydlitz had spent the previous winter in Greece and Egypt. He wrote a travel serial about his journey, entitled "Wo die Sonne scheint, ziellose Reisebriefe eines Malers" for the art journal Die Kunst für Alle. For further information, see Nietzsche's Library: Research Material. Reinhart von Seydlitz (1850-1931).
2. Seydlitz arrived in Genoa in April and decided to visit Nietzsche in Nice. However, despite being aware of his friend's plans, Nietzsche left Nice in April for Turin just before Seydlitz's arrival.
3. Nietzsche began writing Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra), Part 1 in Rapallo around January-February 1883.
4. "among people" (unter Menschen); "monster" (Unmensch); "the unsheltered" (Unbehauster). Cf. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, lines 3348-3351: "Bin ich der Flüchtling nicht? der Unbehauste? / Der Unmensch ohne Zweck und Ruh', / Der wie ein Wassersturz von Fels zu Felsen brauste / Begierig wütend nach dem Abgrund zu?" (Am I not the fugitive? the unsheltered? / The purposeless, restless monster, / Who has roared like a waterfall from cliff to cliff / Greedily raging down to the abyss?)
5. "Menschenkind" (see Note 7).
6. GSA 102/138: "Provençalische Hochzeit Streichquartett" (a/k/a "Minnesängers Brautfahrt").
7. "Wunderthier." One would expect to be called a musical "Wunderkind" (prodigy), but Nietzsche takes a different tack.
8. They never met.

Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.
Weimar, ca. 1904.
From b/w photo.
Colorized and enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

Nueva Germania, September 6, 1888:
Letter from Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.1

My dear Fritz of my heart,

Surely a letter has been lost by you or me because a huge gap in our correspondence has arisen. I think I must have last written to you in June, but I do not know exactly, nevertheless it seems to me ages ago, and, in any case, it has been even longer since we have heard from you.2 Through mom, I now hear many things about your increasing fame,3 and as much as it pleases me, I have since given up any hope that you will ever come over to [see] us,4 for fame is a sweet potion! Of course, good mama must also remain there, even if I have to accept that she would be more comfortable and carefree there than here. But notions about comfortable living are so different; to me, e.g., being a landlady for young men would be such an abomination that I would rather do anything else to evade it; but her taste is different, and it seems to me that this keeping house for young men gives good mama some enjoyment.

Next week, a dear Danish friend is coming to [visit] us, at which time I hope he will bring me some Danish newspapers5 and translate for me what they say about you. Personally, I would have wished a different apostle for you than Mr. Brandes, he has peeked into6 too many pots and eaten off too many plates, but one cannot choose one's admirers and it's quite certain that he will make you fashionable, because that's what he understands. But I cannot suppress a well-intentioned piece of advice: better not meet with him personally, write your congenial feelings, but do not look at him closely. Two friends of ours, Mr. Johannsen and Mr. Haug, know him personally and are not exactly enthusiastic, but everyone agrees that he has an excellent sense for the most interesting phenomena of all time and makes himself interesting through them.

It does my heart unlimited good that now there can no longer be any talk of deadly silence and that through Brandes the genuine good admirers who are congenial to you may now hear from you.

My dear Fritz of my heart, now it is your dear birthday7 once again and one thinks of how many years we have already been together and, unfortunately, have now wandered through life so far from each other. How much joy and sorrow has already gone by for us: is it actually worthwhile to live? For people who are just as sensitive as we are, life has more sorrow than joy, and it has to go altogether wildly well in order for us to forget the sorrow entirely. But some things one never really overcomes, e.g., a warm, indeed at times utterly indescribable longing to see you again. May this reunion be granted to us in the not too distant future. I can no longer wish for you to come over here now, since the weather conditions here this year seem quite unfavorable to me. As much fluctuation and low barometric pressure as there has been in any of the past few years. Of course all over the world it does not seem that the weather is so special. Mom writes you were snowed-in; well, you need not fear that here.

Dear Fritz of my heart, may life's new year bring you so much joy that you have no time for painful feelings and may your health be strengthened! I always think that you will or should become healthier from year to year. As an old man you will surely still be just as lively and cheerful. Now you know we would very much like to provide for your old age and so we want to sign over to you a beautiful piece of land, which will perhaps one day be worth a pretty penny. We will send you a purchase contract with the next mailing which will tell you all the details; I will send it to our dear mama because she always knows where you are. I consider as purchase money the 1000 marks that good mama paid for my furniture back then, the 600 m[arks]. that she donated and the 300 m[arks]. that you donated, but we say that it is fully paid. There are eight lots. But you must not forget to appoint us, i. e., my husband, as your agent and trustee.8

Since I will be writing to you so soon, I will now stop today for we have so much to do with the land register and the execution of the deeds of sale.

So farewell you dear heart! Bern[hard] wholeheartedly wishes you happiness and all the best!

Affectionately
Your
old Lama9

1. Nietzsche received this letter after writing from Sils Maria to Elisabeth in Paraguay on September 14, 1888. For his response, see his draft of a mid-November 1888 letter to Elisabeth.
2. Ibid. During this time period, the last known letter from Elisabeth was sent on 01-14-1888, while Nietzsche's last known letter to her was sent on 03-31-1888.
3. In April-May 1888 (April 10, 17, 24, May 1, 5), Georg Brandes held five lectures on Nietzsche. The lectures were reported with notices (presumably by Brandes) in the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Politiken, which also published a biographical article on Nietzsche (again, presumably by Brandes) on April 20.
4 The failed Paraguayan colony, "Nueva Germania," of Elisabeth's husband, Bernhard Förster (1843-1889), a leader of the German anti-Semitic movement. Förster eventually committed suicide.
5. See Note 3.
6. Cf. Turin, 12-25-1888: Letter to Franz Overbeck in Basel. Nietzsche uses "geleckt" (licked) instead of Elisabeth's "geguckt" (peeked [into]). Her disparaging remarks about Brandes caused Nietzsche to break off relations with her once again.
7. October 15.
8. Nietzsche never purchased a plot of land at the failed colony "Nueva Germania."
9. Nietzsche's pet name for Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.

Malwida von Meysenbug.
From b/w etching.
Colorized and enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

Turin, October 18, 1888:
Letter to Malwida von Meysenbug.

Esteemed friend,

Friedrich Nietzsche.

1. Cf. Versailles, ca. mid-Oct. 1888: Fragment of a letter from Malwida von Meysenbug to Nietzsche in Turin.
2. The phrase "dieser Hanswurst" (this buffoon) was redacted and replaced with "Wagner" in editions of Nietzsche's letters published by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Cf. Der Fall Wagner (The Case of Wagner), Epilogue; and Versailles, ca. mid-Oct. 1888: Fragment of a letter from Malwida von Meysenbug to Nietzsche in Turin: "Der Ausdruck: 'Hanswurst' für W[agner] und [Franz] Liszt ist ganz abscheulich." (The term "buffoon" for W[agner] and [Franz] Liszt is quite abominable.)

Heinrich Köselitz's anonymous review of Der Fall Wagner.
In: Der Kunstwart, Jg. 2, November, 1888.
Enhanced image ©The Nietzsche Channel.

Turin, December 17, 1888: Letter to Helen Zimmern.1

Dear Fräulein

You would do me a great service if you wished to translate for one of the big review-journals the enclosed essay2 by Mr. Peter Gast under the title "Nietzsche contra Wagner." At present, it's absolutely imperative that I become known in England: for my next writings3 — they are completely ready to print — should appear simultaneously in English, French and German. The horned-cattle-race — forgive me for the severe term! — of the Germans is completely alien to me; they will retaliate against me with confiscations and other police measures. Therefore, for my task, which is one of the greatest that a man can undertake — I want to destroy Christianity — I need America, England and France — freedom of the press in every sense ...

I remember reading in an issue of the Journal des Débats that an English journal (Century Review or the like) has very forcefully initiated the fight against Wagner.4 If you feel like it, I will send you my work.5 It is venomous and could have been written by a Parisian.

Just now, published by me, something extremely radical, Twilight of the Idols. Or: How One Philosophizes with a Hammer.* I will send it to you — you may introduce this piece in England. It is anti-German and anti-Christian par excellence — should it not, therefore, be very appealing to the English? My arguments are quite different from those ever employed — I am not a man, I am dynamite.6

Hopefully my letter finds you in a courageous and warlike mood? —