GEEMAN TRANSLATIONS OF COOPER'S WORKS 



Jt is safe to say that the works of no other novelist have been 

 so widely circulated in translation. This was hardly due to the 

 exeeiienee of the German translations themselves. Some of the 

 German translations were poor enough. Goethe, upon reading a 

 German translation of 'Red Rover,' noted in his 'Diary' for Janu- 

 ary \&28: '■ 'Red Rover,' deutsehe Ubersetzung 1. Thl., es fehlt 

 viel, dass sie gut sey. Man sieht ihr wie andern solchen Arl)eiten 

 die Eile an. Wenn sieh der Ubersetzer nicht in seinen Autor ver- 

 tieft und verliebt, so ko)nmt oft gerade bey den Hauptstellen etwas 

 Spielendes und Unsicheres zum Vorschein, wodurch der inten- 

 tionirte Eindruck, die absichtlichste Darsteliung gestort wirde. " 

 Cooper's popularity in Europe was due rather to the fact that the 

 material was such that permitted readily of translation. It made 

 a common appeal. William CuUan Bryant thought his wide fame 

 was due to the fact that Cooper's excellences were all of such a 

 nature that permitted readily of translation into other languages.-'^ 



In 1872 Spielhagen expressed the idea that if a writer wished 

 to entertain the public longer mth Indian material he must for- 

 sake the field of history and confine hiitiself to the purely 

 legendary, as Longfellow had done in his 'Hia\vatha. Goedeke, 

 the German literary historian, in 1881 thought of his boyhood 

 days fifty years earlier when he so eagerly devoured 'The Pilot' 

 and 'The Prairie,' and exclaimed with a sigh of regret: "Wer liest 

 sie noch .^"'-- I append a list of German translations and adapta- 

 tions of Cooper's woi'ks from the first translation in 1824 down 

 to the present day, a list which shows that Cooper's novels con- 

 tinue to entertain a public which has come into being since Spiel- 

 hagen \s generation. In this list is also contained the answer to 

 Goedeke 's wistful question. 'The Ijeatherstocking Tales" are still 

 eagerly read by the German school boy, and quite as much as by 

 the American. They have become German household words. The 

 recent German boy scouts have been fittingly termed 'Die Pf ad- 

 finder, ' and the German student of today greets the last bottle of 

 wine at a " feuchtfrohliche Sitzung" as 'Der letzte Mohikaner." 

 This list of translations and adaptations from Cooper's novels, 

 which I believe to be a comprehensive one, is arranged, as nearly 

 as has been possible, in the chronological order of their appearance : 



-'■ Cf. •Commrm.-.rative 1 )iscoi!rsPS.' Prose Writinsis. X. Y. 1884. Vol I. 



Cf. Voi-wort TO 'Amei'ikanipche Gedichtc" Lpz. 1872. 

 -■^Cf. 'Geschichtc der ]>entsclion Di.-htnn-.- ■^. Pel. 1 SM . s. 



