Goethe & His Publishers

This text organizes the many details of Goethe's career in print. Siegfried Unseld brings a singular perspective to this biography, focusing attention on an essential component of Goethe's literary endeavors: his relationship to his publishers.



Poet and natural philosopher, critic and raconteur, Goethe was the most commanding literary presence of his time. This text organizes the many 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.