Goethe and His Publishers

Suhrkamp | Insel
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Chicago UP), Spanish world rights (Galaxia Gutenberg), Chinese simplex rights (Yunnan), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Japan (Hosei UP)


Goethe and His Publishers / Goethe und seine Verleger
»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...
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»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 Analyzing publishing contracts, draft contracts, and historical documents, Unseld reveals the tremendous energy Goethe exerted on behalf of his manuscripts.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.« (Book Description of the Chicago UP edition)

1991, 790 pages
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Cover (Web)Cover (Print)

Persons

Siegfried Unseld was born in 1924. From 1959 until his death in 2002 he was the publisher of Suhrkamp Verlag.

Siegfried Unseld was born in 1924. From 1959 until his death in 2002 he was the publisher of Suhrkamp Verlag.


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

One Hundred Letters
Year of Publication: 2024
Siegfried UnseldYear of Publication: 2024
For Siegfried Unseld, letters were not just part of his working life, they were a way of life in and of themselves. He used them to organise his thoughts. They were a constant and integral part of...
Rights sold to:

Korea (Marco Polo Press)

Travel Reports
Year of Publication: 2020
Siegfried UnseldYear of Publication: 2020

Ten days after Siegfried Unseld took over as publisher of Suhrkamp Verlag on April 1, 1959, he travels to East Berlin to visit Brecht’s widow Helene Weigel. Once returned, he dictates the first of...

Rights sold to:

Greece (Potamos)

The Correspondence
Year of Publication: 2012
Peter Handke, Siegfried UnseldYear of Publication: 2012
»I am happy to announce that after reading your manuscript closely, we have decided to pub-lish your work at Suhrkamp Verlag.« This letter in August 1965 was the start of a correspon-dence consisting of nearly 600 letters in which Peter Handke finally congratulated the pub-lisher on his 75th birthday.


In their letters that stretched a period of over 35 years, Peter Handke and Siegfried...
The Correspondence
Year of Publication: 2009
Thomas Bernhard, Siegfried UnseldYear of Publication: 2009
»If anyone has been hoping for just one last undiscovered drama by Thomas Bernhard, here it is. Its title is Correspondence, its birth spanning from 1961 to Bernhard's death in...
Rights sold to:

France (Macula)

Previously published in the respective language/territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Complices)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)

The Author and His Publisher
Year of Publication: 1985
Siegfried UnseldYear of Publication: 1985
»As head of Suhrkamp Verlag, a premier German publishing house, Siegfried Unseld is eminently qualified to write about the relationship between authors and their publishers – and he does...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Chicago UP), Spanish world rights (Taurus), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai Reader), Russia (Libra; non-exclusive), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Guanabara), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Korea (UUPress), Turkey (Norgunk)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Serbia (Ultimatum.rs)


DISCOVER

News
The publisher was born 100 years ago in Ulm, on 28 September 1924.
News
On October 26, 2002, publisher Siegfried Unseld died in Frankfurt am Main.