158b. The editors of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung to Wilhelm Schlegel in Braunschweig: Jena, 3 November 1795 [*]
Jena, 3 November 1795
Herr Hofrath Schiller notified us that your Esteemed Sir would not be disinclined to become involved as a contributor to the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung. This news is so welcome to us that we are sending you herewith, without the circumlocution of a formal invitation etc., copies of our general guidelines and a contract. [1] Please be so kind as to sign and seal the duplicate of the contract, seal it, and send it back to us at your earliest convenience.
A list of recensendis will be immediately forthcoming after the conclusion of our business at the book fair. If, however, you already have at hand any writings, especially of foreign literature, that you might wish to review, please take the liberty to do so; we ask only that you alert us beforehand to the titles that we might check our indices and determine whether the one or other might already have been assigned, that is, whether you can proceed with the review without danger of collision.
Please be assured of our complete respect, wherewith we also remain
Your devoted servant,
The editors of the ALZ [2]
Notes
[*] Source: Körner (1930) 1:628; notes 2:12–13. The editors of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung were Christian Gottfried Schütz and Gottlieb Hufeland. Back.
[1] Körner (1930), 2:12–13, points out that according to the contract, which along with the general guideliness was still extant in the Dresden library, Wilhelm received “17 Thaler 12 Groschen Conventionsfuss [1753 currency regulation between Austria and Bavaria, later adopted by most other imperial estates] according to the Leipzig exchange rate for each sheet [Bogen] of 16 columns à 60 lines.” Back.
[2] The Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung plays a continuing and prominent role in the lives of not just Wilhelm, but also Caroline over the next five years, and indeed beyond, i.e., even after Wilhelm and Schelling’s break with the journal.
This scholarly journal, to which Caroline also contributed literary reviews, appeared daily, sometimes twice daily (articles sometimes ran over two issues), and also published an Intelligenzblatt. Here the front page on the day the editors wrote Wilhelm this present letter, cited as Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1795) 295 (Tuesday, 3 November 1795) 241–42 (see the general remarks on citation structure for the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung).
The initial collective review here covers six books from the rubric of Schöne Künste, i.e., belles lettres, including (no. 6) vol. 1 of Ludwig Tieck’s novel William Lovell in octavo (“8”) format:
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott