"Oh, what a surprise this was! To see the beauty and manly grace of your copy — this is how one feels after a Roman-Turkish bath, not just cleansed, but rejuvenated and improved. I read and went for a walk for a few hours, full of heartfelt thoughts towards you and nature. It seems to me a book of substance: but it's difficult. In the early hours of this glorious February, I've produced an addendum to make it all quite unambiguous. — You will, I think, be satisfied. Can I send this addendum? — I also want to change the title; you have taken the verse I wrote down by chance from the Hymn to Varuna as the motto, and raised the idea: shouldn't the book be called: 'A Dawn. Thoughts on moral prejudices etc' There are so many bright and, in particular, red colors in it!"
— February 9, 1881: Postcard from Friedrich Nietzsche to Heinrich Köselitz.

"Every title must above all be quotable: so we need to change it! Not 'A Dawn,' but just: Dawn. So it does not sound so pretentious."
— March 20, 1881: Letter from Friedrich Nietzsche to Heinrich Köselitz.

"While reading 'Dawn' and 'Joyful Science,' I found that there is almost no line in them that cannot serve as an introduction, preparation and commentary on the aforesaid Zarathustra. It is a fact that I did the commentary before writing the text — —"
— April 7, 1884: Letter from Friedrich Nietzsche to Franz Overbeck.

"And now be so patient, dear sir, and kindly accept two of my books that have just appeared in new editions. [....]

These two books are dear to me. The first, Dawn, I wrote in Genoa, given up by the doctors at the time of my most severe and painful infirmity, face to face with death and in the midst of an incredible hardship and isolation: but I wanted it no other way and was still at peace with and certain of myself. The other one, The Joyful Science, I am indebted to the first glimpses of the sun of returning health: it was [written] a year later (1882), likewise in Genoa, in a few sublimely clear and sunny weeks of January. The problems with which both books are concerned make one lonely. May I ask you to accept them from my hands with goodwill?"
— July 4, 1887: Letter from Friedrich Nietzsche to Hippolyte Taine.