INFLUENCE OF NORTH AMERICAN LITERATURE 481 



How necessary it is to bear all these points in mind will be shown 

 in the following discussion by an example. It is an example of the 

 influence of an apparently remote literature upon an author, in 

 whose case foreign influences have not previously been suspected. 

 The particular example chosen seems here all the more in place, 

 because it deals with the influence of North American literature 

 upon a German writer, a countryman of my own, with whose works 

 I have made myself familiar by years of careful study. 



Adalbert Stifter, a son of the German Bohemian Forest, sprang 

 suddenly into fame in the early forties of the last century by the 

 publication of his Studies; criticism scattered its incense before 

 him, no less an authority than Eichendorff was the first to grasp his 

 epoch-making significance. For a time he had great vogue. His later 

 works, however, did not meet with the same success; an unjust 

 enemy, with whom he was not equipped to fight, arose in the inex- 

 orable Hebbel, who thought to annihilate him with savage attacks. 

 After a period of unobtrusive influence in narrower circles, he has 

 come again into general and still increasing favor. It is only the 

 history of nineteenth-century literature a study which is still in 

 its beginnings that could make nothing of him. A few thoughtless 

 catch-phrases, such as that regarding Stifter's lack of passion, have 

 been passed on from one book to another. An otherwise valuable 

 book on German fiction of the nineteenth century omits entirely the 

 name of the author, who has given us in his Nachsommer one of 

 the most intimate and original of German romances. The authority 

 of a Nietzsche was needed to compel the indifferent to attend to him. 

 In Stifter's home, to be sure, no such impulsion was required. As is 

 the case with all German stocks and fragments of stocks that are 

 politically separated from the mother country, the home literature 

 in Austria has a hearty recognition and its history is zealously 

 cultivated. The best Austrian story-writers of the present day attach 

 themselves to Stifter and esteem him highly. He is honored as one 

 of the noblest of native artists. An extensive biography of Stifter 

 from the hand of an enthusiastic supporter (Alois Raimund Hem) 

 has just appeared, a work of years of loving industry. Eager collectors 

 care for the preservation of his paintings and drawings, autographs 

 and letters, for the storing of which a Stifter-Archive has been 

 founded in Prague. The ''Society for the Advancement of German 

 Science, Art. and Literature in Bohemia" is publishing in its Library 

 of German Authors of Bohemia a complete critical edition of his 

 works. 1 Vigorous young blood is entering zealously into the study. 



1 Bibliothck dcufscher Schriftsteller aus Boluncn. Vol. 11: A. Stifter, Si'imtlicht 

 Wcrkc, 1 vol., Xtudi<n, 1 vol., herausgegcbon von A. Sauer (my introduction to 

 this volume has several points of contact with the present lecture). Bibliothek, 

 vol. 12 : A. Stifter, Sumtliche Wcrkc, vol. 14, Vcrmischtc ScJtriftcn, 1 vol., 

 herausgegeben von A. Horcicka (Prag, J. G. Calve). 



