Literary Reception
Some of the book's biographical details, despite the best available information at the time, are now known to be false, yet Mencken's examination is accurate, as indeed are his personal translations of Nietzsche (for which one may see his translation of The Antichrist as a salient example); while his own feelings at times—and it would seem quite innocently and unintentionally — "muddy the water" of trying to interpret Nietzsche through Mencken (due to, for example, Mencken's own social Darwinism), his study of Nietzsche is objective on the whole, even allowing for his enthusiasm for Nietzsche.
Due to this broad and close style of examination, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche may very well be where "Nietzsche Studies" earnestly began in America.
Read more about this topic: The Philosophy Of Friedrich Nietzsche
Famous quotes containing the words literary and/or reception:
“We that write & print have all our books predestinated—& and for me, I shall write such things as the Great Publisher of Mankind ordained ages before he published “The World”Mthis planet, I mean—not the Literary Globe.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)