Research Guides: General

Book Reviews

Book reviews provide summaries, contemporary criticism, and succinct evaluations about published works. Here are a few ways to track down reviews at the Library.

Book reviews provide summaries, contemporary criticism, and succinct evaluations about published works. Reviews normally appear within a year of the date of publication; if this date is not known, it often can be ascertained by searching the title of the work in CATNYP, the online catalog of the research collections; if the publication is not found therein and was acquired by the Library before 1971, it is then necessary to check the Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries. If these two sources are unable to provide the desired information, please consult WorldCat, an international bibliographic database. In addition, feel free to speak to a librarian at the Information Desk.
If you need further assistance, visit our reference desk, or e-mail us at ask@nypl.org

Requesting Materials

Sources for book review citations will provide the titles and dates of periodicals in which the reviews appear. To obtain the call numbers of the appropriate periodicals, first check CATNYP, the Library’s online catalog. If the periodical in question is not found in CATNYP, check the 800-volume Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library, listing materials acquired before 1972. Although the vast majority of the entries in the Dictionary Catalog are to be found in CATNYP, some titles, especially defunct periodicals of limited run, may be found only in the Dictionary Catalog. After determining the call number for the periodical, complete a blue and white call slip with the title of the periodical, the date of the article, and the call number. Do not include the title of the article or its author.

Basic Reference Sources

Book Review Digest Plus An index, with abstracts, to book reviews from publications in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. It covers the period from 1983 to the present.

Book Review Digest Retrospective Same as above but covers the period from 1905 through 1982. Both Book Review Digest Plus and Book Review Digest Retrospective may be searched by keyword, subject, title of book, author of book, author of review, Dewey Decimal Number, publication year, and ISBN.

Book Review Index Online Covering the period from 1965 to the present, this resource indexes book reviews appearing in British and American scholarly and general interest publications. This resource may be searched by keyword, author of book, author of review, title of book, and publication date.

Book Reviews in Retrospective Sources

Nineteenth-Century Masterfile is an electronic index to many resources printed in the nineteenth century. It is especially important for its inclusion of Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, 1802-1881 which contains book reviews.

American Periodical Series and America’s Historical Newspapers are databases which can be searched by keyword. The former provides the full text of many periodicals, and the latter is the equivalent resource for newspapers; both cover the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Book reviews are found in both resources, and may be searched by title of the book, author of the book, or author of review.

The following print titles provide a resource for book reviews for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period which precedes the introduction of the standard book review indexing tools. Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974 (Woodbridge, CT: Research Publications, 1982-1984), 10 vols. JFF 96-5182. Arranged alphabetically by author of the book and supplemented by title index.

Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974 (Arlington, Va.: Carrollton Press, 1979-1982), 15 vols. JFF 96-5151. Arranged alphabetically by author of the book and supplemented by title index.

C.R.I.S.: The Combined Retrospective Index Set to Journals in History, 1838-1974 (Washington: Carrollton Press, 1977-1978), 11 vols. JFF 94-1576. Volumes one through four cover world history; volumes five through nine cover United States history, and volumes ten and eleven are author indexes.

C.R.I.S.: The Combined Retrospective Index Set to Journals in Political Science, 1886-1974 (Washington: Carrollton Press, 1977-1978), 8 vols. JLF 86-1799. Volume one covers international affairs, organizations, international relations, and trade; volume two covers general studies and methodology; volumes three to six cover public administration; and volumes seven and eight are the author index.

C.R.I.S.: The Combined Retrospective Index Set to Journals in Sociology, 1895-1974 (Washington: Carrollton Press, 1978), 6 vols. JLF 86-1798. Please see CATNYP for the arrangement by sub-discipline for each volume; volume 6 is the author index.

Book Reviews in Contemporary Sources

Many contemporary resources provide book reviews; they are available electronically and may be consulted on the Library’s Selected Electronic Resources page. Please check the description for each resource to determine the years covered as well as the availability of full text as opposed to citations. The following is a select list of these specialized resources.

EBSCO Research Databases provide full text or abstract for articles, including book reviews, appearing in scholarly, specialized, and general periodicals. Thousands of periodicals, representing a wide range of disciplines and subjects, are covered.

More specialized indexing tools include the following: Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; America: History and Life; Anthropological Literature; Art Full Text; Art Index Retrospective; ATLA Religion Database; Historical Abstracts; Humanities Abstracts; Social Sciences Abstracts; Sociological Abstracts; PsychArticles; PsychInfo. The book reviews indexed in these sources may be accessed by title of book, name of author of book, and name of reviewer
.

Selected Internet Sites

• Bookreporter
  http://www.bookreporter.com/index.asp
  Book reviews, author profiles and interviews, excerpts, literary games and contests.
• Booksonline
  http://www.booksonline.co.uk
  Reviews and book-related articles from the London Telegraph. Published online since 1996.

• H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online
  http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/
  An international, interdisciplinary consortium of scholars and teachers, H-Net creates and coordinates Internet networks in order to advance teaching and research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Site contains peer-reviewed essays, multimedia materials, and discussions aimed at colleagues and the interested public.
• London Review of Books
  http://www.lrb.co.uk
  Website of the bimonthly London Review of Books features an extensive, full-text archive.
• New York Review of Books
  http://nybooks.com/nyrev/
  Contains select full-text articles.
• Salon.com: Books
  http://www.salon.com/books/index.html
  Daily book reviews, interviews with writers, and a weekly list of reading recommendations by celebrated authors.

Dictionary Catalog

The 800-volume Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library, 1911-1972, also known as the "black books" or "retrospective" catalog, contains records of books and periodicals acquired by the Library prior to 1972. It is a photographic copy, in book form, of the Library's card catalog. This catalog is available in many locations throughout the New York Public Library, and in many other libraries around the world.

A typical page comprises 21 cards, each one numbered sequentially at the bottom. Some of the Library's holdings are not included--neither those of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture nor those of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (except for books and serials). Holdings of the Map Division (except for books and serials) and some special collections such as Manuscripts and Archives and the Arents Collection, plus works in non-romanized alphabets from the Jewish, Asian and Middle Eastern, and Slavic and Baltic Divisions are also not included. These collections have separate divisional book catalogs which can be consulted in the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room. In addition, many of these holdings are being added to the Library's online catalog, CATNYP, which represents materials cataloged from 1972-present.

The Dictionary Catalog is primarily an author and subject catalog, with a minimum number of entries for titles, interfiled in one alphabet. Information about the filing order of the catalog may be found at the beginning of each volume. The books and periodicals in the Dictionary Catalog have been converted to machine-readable form and are available in the online catalog, CATNYP. However, there are many thousands of indexing entries that analyze the contents of periodicals and other serial publications and these can only be found in the Dictionary Catalog and the other printed catalogs of The Research Libraries.

Locating Materials

To search for works by an author, look under that author's last name. Works about the author (e.g., biography or criticism) will appear following works by that author. For especially voluminous authors, such as Shakespeare, there is a specific filing order, starting with complete works. Information about the filing order for these authors will be found just before the first entry under their name.

To search for works on a subject, look under the subject heading, which appears at the top of the card, usually in all capital letters. If you are in doubt about which heading to use, ask a librarian; there is a six-volume listing of Dictionary Catalog subject headings at the Information Desk. Some of them may seem illogical or outdated from a late-20th-century point of view; for example, the heading for World War I is EUROPEAN WAR, 1914-1918. Also, subject headings frequently proceed from a general to a specific concept; for example, the heading for the American Civil War is UNITED STATES--HISTORY--CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865.

To search for a title (for example, that of a book without a named author, or of a periodical), omit initial articles and other small words in the title. For example, if you are looking for the title of the book The London and Country Brewer, look under London Country Brewer. In the Dictionary Catalog,periodical publications of an organization or learned society typically appear under the name of the organization as corporate author (e.g., Hakluyt Society; Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.) However, many of these have been converted into CATNYP and will be found there, too.

Certain works file in a specific order under a general (or "form") title because there are so many different editions. For entries under the title Bible, for example, look at the very beginning to see how they are filed.

In the Dictionary Catalog, the call number (or "classmark" or call letters) is whatever you see in the upper-righthand corner of the card. Two classification systems were used in the catalog. The Billings system, devised by the Library's first librarian, consists of letters of the alphabet, sometimes preceded by an asterisk (*) and sometimes accompanied by other symbols:

NCE
IAG p.v. 99, no. 4
AN (Douglass, F.)
VTI n.c. 23
*PVR
MME+++
*KC 1682

The "fixed-order" system, in use after the mid-fifties, consists of a combination of letters and numbers in this typical pattern: A-10 1234, or more recently JFK 71-1234. The most authoritative information about a work in the Dictionary Catalog is found under the main entry, which is usually the author.

Offsite Locations

The 800-volume Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries of The New York Public Library, 1911-1971 can be found in the following libraries worldwide:

United States

Arizona

University of Arizona

California

California State University, Fresno* Los Angeles Public Library* Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis*
University of California, Los Angeles (Research Library)
University of Southern California

Connecticut

Yale University

Florida

Florida State University
University of Florida

Georgia

University of Georgia, Athens

Indiana

Indiana University, Bloomington
Purdue University, West Lafayette
University of Notre Dame

Illinois

Chicago Public Library*
Newberry Library, Chicago
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

Kansas

Kansas State University
University of Kansas

Louisiana

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

Maryland

University of Maryland

Massachusetts

Boston Public Library

Michigan

University of Michigan

Missouri

University of Missouri, Kansas City

New Jersey

Princeton University Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Rugters University, Newark (Dana Library)

New York

Brooklyn College
City College
Columbia University (Butler Library)
Cornell University
Fordham University
New York State Library
New York University (Bobst Library)
Queens College
SUNY Buffalo (Lockwood Library)
SUNY Purchase*
SUNY Stony Brook
Syracuse University
University of Rochester
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie

Ohio

Ohio State University

Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma, Norman*
University of Tulsa

Pennsylvania

Penn. State University
University of Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Brown University

Texas

Dallas Public Library

Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Foreign

Australia

National Library of Australia, Canberra*

Canada

McGill University, Montreal*
National Library of Canada, Ottawa*
University of Toronto

Germany

Hochschule der Bundeswehr, Hamburg
Staatsbibliothek, West Berlin
Univers. Bibliothek, Bochum

Japan

United Publishers (distributor; buyers unknown)

Mexico

Biblioteca nacional, mexico D.F.*

Netherlands

Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague
Universiteits-Biblio., Amsterdam

Puerto Rico

University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras

South Africa

State Library, Pretoria

Switzerland

Zentralbibliothek, Zurich (Kantons, Stadt und univ. Bibliothek)

United Kingdom

British Library, London
Cambridge University
John Ryalnds U. Library, Manchester, England
Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Scotland
University of Oxford (Bodleian Library)

*microfilm edition

Earth Day Bibliography * (PDF)

This list of books, websites and related materials pays homage to the mother planet and recognizes her challenges for the future.

How to Find Periodicals

A guide to the approximately 15,000 periodical subscriptions at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Introduction to the Collections

The periodical collections of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library are one of its greatest strengths, and attract scholars from a wide range of disciplines from around the world.  Periodicals, also referred to as journals, magazines or serials, are found in a variety of locations throughout the Library, depending on the date, subject, and language of the publication.  CATNYP, the Library’s online catalog, will tell you where you can find the journal you need.

Alongside mainstream journals, the collection includes many unique and unusual items not found in other Libraries.  The range includes ethnic weekly newspapers, zines, publications from the alternative press, American literary magazines ("little magazines"), collectibles, city magazines, learned society and museum publications, illustrated magazines, sports & games, and hobbies.

Some of the interesting and obscure titles you will find in our collections include:

• Potato Chipper, published by the National Potato Chip Institute
• Skanky Possum, a contemporary poetry journal published in Austin, TX
• Nyu Yorker Vokhnblat, a Yiddish literary journal published in New York from 1935-1960.

The collection is both an historical one, as well as an active, contemporary one, with publications ranging from Benjamin Franklin’s General Magazine, the first U.S. magazine, started in 1741, to the latest issue of Cosmopolitan.

Using the Library’s Catalogs

CATNYP is the online catalog of The New York Public Library's four Research Libraries. It is easily accessible via the World Wide Web at http://catnyp.nypl.org. For general instructions on using CATNYP, please consult Using the Library's Online Catalog.

You can locate journals in CATNYP by either searching for a specific title, or by browsing a specific subject area.

If you are looking for a particular magazine, journal or newspaper, a Journal Title search will be the quickest method.  Please note that a Journal Title search includes newspapers, magazines, and journals, all in a single search.

• Go to the main search screen for CATNYP at http://catnyp.nypl.org
• Click on the Journal Title search option
• Type in the title you are seeking (you do not need to use punctuation or capital letters; you can just enter the first few letters of the title if you prefer)
• Click on Search
• Select the record that you want from the list retrieved

If you want to browse a list of journals in a particular subject area, there are 2 methods that will work: a subject search, and a word search.

Subject Search

If you know the subject heading you wish to browse, you can perform a subject search.  Remember that subject headings in CATNYP use controlled vocabulary terms set by the Library of Congress.  For help in finding LC subject Headings, refer to the Using the Library’s Online Catalog Research Guide.

• Go to the main search screen for CATNYP at http://catnyp.nypl.org
• Click on the Subject search option
• Type in the subject you are seeking followed by the word Periodicals
• Click on Search
• Choose the subject heading from the list that is retrieved
• You can then scroll through an alphabetical listing of all periodical titles in that subject area

Examples:

• Art Periodical
• American Literature Periodicals
• United States History Periodicals
• Russian Periodicals

Word Search

You can also retrieve a list of periodicals using the Word search features in CATNYP.  Word searches allow you to use any words you wish.  This is especially helpful if you are not certain of the appropriate subject heading to use in your search.

• Go to the main search screen for CATNYP at http://catnyp.nypl.org
• Click on the Words search option
• Type in the term(s) to describe your topic
  • If the words you entered can appear in any order, you need to type the word and in between each term (if you omit the word and CATNYP will only retrieve records which contain the exact phrase you entered)
• Under the Publication Type box, choose Periodical
• Click on Submit Search
• Because word searches usually produce more results, please note that they may take longer than other searches

Examples:

• civil war (limited to periodicals)
• literature and italian (limited to periodicals)
• culinary (limited to periodicals)

After you have done a word search, and have found relevant periodicals in the collections, you may want to scan the online record in CATNYP to see what subject heading is used for that particular title.  You can then do a subject search to find other relevant titles.

For example, the word search mentioned above using the term culinary retrieves 17 records.  Looking at one of the titles found, you will note a subject heading cookery periodicals.  You can click on that subject heading to retrieve 69 periodicals related to that topic.

Although most periodicals and journals are now in CATNYP, there are still some older titles, as well as some non-English titles, that may not be.  In particular, titles that ceased publication prior to 1972 may not be listed in CATNYP.  If visiting the Library, you may wish to search the Dictionary Catalog for these titles.  Located in Room 315, the Dictionary Catalog contains records of items acquired by the Research Libraries prior to 1972.  It can be searched by both title and subject.

If you are unable to locate the information you need, please ask one of our librarians for assistance.  If you are not in the library, you may also use our online reference services, available at http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/.

Reading a CATNYP Record

Once you have found the item you need in CATNYP, there are several things you will want to look for.  Refer to the record below for help in interpreting the record.

Electronic Journal: Online Access is available from 1967 to 3 years ago, if you are on a computer in the library.

Current in Room 108: The library has the journal in print from 1967 to the present (the open-ended dash after 1996 means that we are still receiving this journal).

Latest Received: The most recent issue we have for this journal is Winter 2002, found in Room 108.

Location: The location fields tell me that there is an online copy available via the Internet, and that other issues listed are available in the General Research Division

Locating Your Periodical in the Library

Periodicals are found throughout the Library, in almost every Division.  CATNYP will tell you in which location you can find the title you are seeking, so be certain to take note of the Location Field when searching.  Please note that a single periodical title might be housed in multiple locations, depending on the format.  For instance, a single title may have current paper issues in Room 108, back issues on microfilm in Room 100, and bound volumes in Room 315!

DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room (Room 108)

Current issues of approximately 11,000 periodicals in the humanities, social science, and general interest subject areas are found here.  Materials here are primarily in the Roman alphabet, and include publications from the United States, the United Kingdom, Latin America, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia.

You will generally find the last 2-3 years of a title here in Room 108.  Older titles will be available either on microfilm (Room 100) or as bound volumes (Room 315).  A variety of popular titles, including 3 daily newspapers, The New York Times (for 6 weeks), Washington Post (3 months), and Wall Street Journal (3 months) are also available in Room 108.

To use materials in the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room, simply fill out a call slip with the title and issue that you need to use.  You may submit the call slip at the front reference desk.

Microforms (Room 100)

Many older issues of newspapers and journals can be found on microfilm or microfiche.  It can usually be found in the Microforms Division, Room 100, located on the first floor.

CATNYP will indicate if the title is on microform, and which dates are available in this format.  You can also tell that a title is in microform by looking at the call number.  It will always begin with a *Z or a *R-*Z.

Frequently used microfilm titles are available in a self-service area, stored in drawers on the left, as you enter Room 100.  These titles are indicated in CATNYP with the call number *R-*Z.  You may retrieve these items yourself, although we ask that you do not return them to the drawers.  We will put them away for you when you are finished with your work.

All other microforms must be requested at the desk, by completing a call slip.  You will need the Call Number, and the title and date or volume of the journal you wish to use.

General Research Division (Room 315)

When the older issues of a periodical held in the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room have been bound, they are shelved in the general stacks and must be requested through the General Research Division, Room 315.  Submit a call slip for each title that you wish to have retrieved.

Milstein Division of US History, Local History and Genealogy (Room 121)

Periodicals relating to local histories, and genealogy are generally found in the Milstein Division, Room 121.  Current and bound issues may be requested here at the reference desk by completing a call slip for each title needed.

Please note that current periodicals (the last 2-3 years) for US History will be found in Room 108.  Older bound issues are in Room 121, and may be requested at the reference desk.  Refer to the CATNYP record for more specific information.

Asian and Middle Eastern Division (Room 219)

The Asian and Middle Eastern Division houses over 1450 periodicals and newspapers from around the world, in a range of languages that includes Chinese, Japanese, Korean, eleven Indian languages, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Georgian, Tibetan, several languages of Central Asia, and the major languages of the ancient Near East.  The Division's subject areas include linguistics, literature, religion, archaeology, and history.

Dorot Jewish Division (Room 84)

The Dorot Jewish Division holds over 1200 periodical and newspaper titles of Jewish interest.  The titles held go back as far as the 17th century, although the strength of the collection is in its late 19th and 20th century holdings.

Current issues, bound issues, and microfilm of these titles can be retrieved from the reference desk in Room 84.  For more information, or to browse a list of titles found in the Jewish Division, visit their web site at http://www.nypl.org/humanities/jewish

Slavic and Baltic Division (Room 216-217)

The Slavic and Baltic Division is the locus for the Library's largest concentration of Slavic and Baltic vernacular language collections, with more than 1200 current serials, and 21,800 microform titles.  Here, you will find titles published in Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Latvian, and many other languages.  Note that western-language newspapers and periodicals relating to Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union will be found in either the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room (Room 108) or the General Research Division (Room 315).

All materials housed in the Slavic and Baltic Division may be requested at the reference desk in Rooms 216-217.

Special Collections

There are many periodical titles held in our Special Collections.  Items held in these divisions can be identified by checking the location field in CATNYP.

Items in Special Collections require a special card of admission.  For more information on gaining access to these titles, please visit the Special Collections Access web site at http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/admin/admission.html

One such collection of periodicals is the International Gay Information Center Archives, held in the Manuscripts and Archives Division.  In this collection are approximately 2000 separate periodical titles (tens of thousands of pieces), comprising over 150 linear feet of holdings, 1953-1989. Includes publications from forty-seven states (all except Idaho, South Carolina and West Virginia) and twenty-seven countries (including Argentina, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, and South Africa).  Most of these titles are not yet in CATNYP.  To learn more about this collection, or to browse a list of periodical titles, visit their web site at http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/igic.html

Offsite

The location field in CATNYP may list “Offsite” as a location on some periodicals.  These are items that have been moved to our remote storage facility, and are thus not in the building.  You may request these materials in one of two ways:

• If you need a specific article from a journal (up to 50 pages), and if you have an e-mail address, you may provide us with the citation of the article.  Our staff at the remote storage facility will retrieve the journal, scan your article, and e-mail you a link to connect to that item online.  You may then read the article online, print it out, or save it to your computer at home. 
• If you are not certain of the citation for the article, or if you need to see an entire journal issue, you may request that the journal be delivered to the Library. An item will be delivered the next day (Tuesday - Friday) if the request is placed before 1:30 p.m.  Items requested after 1:30 p.m. will arrive two days later. Items requested after 1:30 p.m. on Thursday will be available the following Tuesday.

Requests for periodicals located offsite may be made in person using our regular call slip, if you are in the Library, or may be made via e-mail or phone from home.  Please make certain you have the complete citation, including the call number, and contact us at (212)930-0830, or callaheadhssl@nypl.org.  Please call before coming in to make certain your material has arrived, (212)930-0813.

Other Research Libraries

In addition to the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, periodicals may be found at the three other Research Libraries of the New York Public Library.  Be sure to check CATNYP for the appropriate location.

• Science & business journals are at the Science Industry & Business Library, located at 34th Street & Madison Avenue
• Dance, theater, music and recorded sound journals are at the Library for the Performing Arts, located in Lincoln Center
• Journals containing information by and about people of African descent throughout the world, concentrating on the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, are at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture located in Harlem at 135th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard

From Citation to Article

In order to find a specific article, you generally first need a citation.  Citations can be discovered or verified by using a database or index.  There are many available in both electronic and print formats throughout the Library.

Which index or database you use depends on the topic of your research.  For electronic resources, the Selected Electronic Resources menu, available on computer workstations throughout the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, offers a subject guide to the indexes & databases available.  Choosing the subject closest to your topic will reveal databases relevant to your field.  If you are accessing the Library’s web site from home, you can review the list of databases and indexes online.  However, please note that you can only access the databases themselves from within the building.

Once you have the citation for the article you desire, go to CATNYP (http://catnyp.nypl.org) and search to see if the item is in the Library’s collections.  Remember to check three key points: 

• Does the Library have the title?
• Does the Library have the date or specific issue you need?
• What is the location for the specific issue you need?

You will need to fill out a call slip in order to request the journal.  Make sure you have the complete citation, including the call number, the full title of the journal, date, volume, and issue number.  While you will not need the author and title of the article to request the journal, you will want to copy it for your research.

Submit the call slip in the appropriate Division to have the item retrieved for you.

Using Online Journals

Hundreds of online journals are available for Library patrons.  You can use these full-text journals directly from the computers in the Library, and gain instant access to the article you are seeking!

On the Selected Electronic Resources page you will find a link to an alphabetical list of Full Text Journals Available Through Databases.  Jump to the letter that your title would be under to see if the Library has online access to the title and date you are seeking.  If it is listed, you can click on the link to go directly to that journal to view your article on screen.  You can then read the article online, print it out, or save or e-mail the article, depending on the database providing access.

How to make copies of articles

Self-service photocopy machines are available in the following locations in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library:

• Rose Main Reading Room, Room 315, North Hall
• DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Room, Room 108
• Milstein Divisionof US History, Local History & Genealogy, Room 121
• Dorot Jewish Division, Room 84

If there is no photocopier in the division in which your periodical is held, please consult the reference librarian for assistance.

Generally, most periodical articles can be photocopied.  However, because many of the items in the collections are fragile, some items may not be allowed for self-service copying.  For these items, our copy services division can make your copies for you.  Please ask one of our reference librarians for assistance with this.

Journal articles on microfilm may be printed using a microfilm reader with an attached printer.  Electronic journal articles may be printed directly from the computer.

Self-service photocopy machines and microfilm printers take either a copy card or coins.  Purchase a copy card or add value to a card at one of the card dispensers located in the Rose Main Reading Room (North Hall and South Hall), the DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Room, the Microforms Division, and the Milstein Division of US History, Local History and Genealogy.  Printing articles from computers in the library can only be done with a copy card.

Copies made with a copy card cost .15¢; copies made with coins cost .20¢.  Fragile items copied through our copy services division cost .25¢.

If you are unable to visit the library, NYPL Express can photocopy articles and deliver them to you for a fee.  Visit them online at http://www.nypl.org/express/

Periodicals available at other Libraries

If an article is needed from a periodical not owned by the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, there are a several options for obtaining it.

• Check to see if the Journal is available online
• Check LEO, the catalog of the Branch Libraries of The New York Public Library
• Check WorldCat to see what other libraries have the journal
  • If the title is available at a library in New York City (NYU, Columbia or CUNY for example) a visit to those libraries may be arranged with the use of a Metro card.
  • If the title is available at a library outside of New York City, you can request a copy of a specific article through Interlibrary Loan.  Please note that there is often a small cost for Interlibrary Loan materials.

For more information concerning these kinds of requests, consult a Librarian at the Reference Desk in Room 315.

Library Lingo

All professions have a way of describing what they do in terms that may not be commonly understood by those who don't work with them daily. This glossary attempts to demystify terms used to describe the collections, catalogs, and procedures at the New York Public Library. Some of these are ideosyncratic to NYPL, but many are common to libraries and the information world at large.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A list of books or articles on a specific subject. Sometimes this is found at the end of a book or an article. Sometimes a long bibliography is published separately as a book. In The New York Public Library Research Libraries Dictionary Catalog, bibliographies almost always appear at the beginning of the subject headings.

BORROWING [a book]: The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library do not lend their materials. The Branch Libraries of The New York Public Library are lending libraries where you can take books and other materials out.

BRANCH LIBRARIES: The lending, or circulating, part of The New York Public Library, consisting of 82 local "branches" in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. (Brooklyn and Queens have separate branch systems.) The Branch Libraries have a different catalog from The Research Libraries. It is available in online (computerized) form on several terminals, and in book form in the Public Catalog Room. The Branch Libraries use the Dewey Decimal System. Go to Branch Libraries Home Page

CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory): A form of technology used for storing, retrieving and distributing information. Audio, graphic images, digital data and digitized text can all be stored on a CD-ROM. Indexing sources make up the largest number of CD-ROMs available in this Library. The equipment necessary for retrieving this information includes a CD-ROM drive and a computer.

CALL NUMBER: A code made of letters and numbers assigned to each item in the Library to indicate its location on the library shelves. The call number is required, along (usually) with author and/or title, for the retrieval of library materials. In the old or Dictionary Catalog, the call number appears in the upper right-hand corner of the card; it often consists of a few letters of the alphabet. In CATNYP, the call number appears at the beginning of the information about the book, periodical, or other material.

CALL SLIP: A request slip you fill out with information from the catalog to enable library staff to obtain your material. The user information is confidential. Give your call slips, three at a time, to the clerk at the west end of the Information Desk. You will receive a number which will light up on the electronic Indicator Board in the South Reading Room when your material has arrived, usually within 20 to 30 minutes.

CARD CATALOG: A library catalog that uses cards for subjects, authors and titles of books. The New York Public Library's Dictionary Catalog is a photographic reproduction of the Library's card catalog through the end of 1971.

CATALOG: A list that includes bibliographic information about books, periodicals, maps, recordings, music scores, visual materials, multimedia and other materials owned by the Library. The New York Public Library has two catalogs: The Dictionary Catalog (or "black book catalog") for materials acquired before 1972, and an online (computerized) catalog (CATNYP) for materials acquired after 1971.

CITATION: Information that identifies a book, an article, or other cited item. For a book, a citation should include the author, the title, the place of publication, the publisher, and the year of publication. For an article, a citation should include the author, the title of the article, the title of the periodical, volume and issue numbers, date of publication and the page numbers of the article.

CLASSMARK: See Call Number

CONTROLLED VOCABULARY: Words used as subject headings by a catalog or an index. Often these are listed in a thesaurus, which you can use to see terms for your topic before you start to use that catalog or index. The controlled vocabulary used in CATNYP is the Library of Congress Subject Headings list.

COOPERATIVE SERVICES: See Interlibrary Loan

DICTIONARY CATALOG: The New York Public Library's 800-volume catalog of materials acquired before 1972, often referred to as the "black books." The Dictionary Catalog is primarily an author and subject catalog, with some titles. These are interfiled in a single alphabet, like a dictionary. More about the Dictionary Catalog

ENTRY: An item in a catalog. In the Dictionary Catalog, the "main entry" is usually under the author. The main entry gives the most authoritative information about the item and may show cataloging changes not recorded elsewhere.

HOLDINGS: Items owned by the library (books, periodicals, volumes, etc.). "Periodical holdings" or "serial holdings" refer to individual issues of a periodical or serial owned by the library.

INDEX: A list of citations to articles and/or books or other materials, usually arranged by subject, by author, or by title.

INTERLIBRARY LOAN: A service (called Cooperative Services at NYPL) which makes it possible to borrow from another library material which The New York Public Library does not own. If a cooperating local library (such as Columbia or NYU) owns the material, you may be issued a METRO pass to see it at that library.

INTERNET: The international network of computer networks. Two means of organizing information on the Internet are the Gopher system, a hierarchical structure, and the World Wide Web (WWW), which organizes and presents information using hypertext. Other tools which allow you to use the Internet include electronic mail (e-mail) and telnet.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS: The Library of Congress is the authority for subject headings used in CATNYP. There are copies of the lists of LC Subject Headings, providing the right terms to use in searching the library catalogs, in the Public Catalog Room. The Dictionary Catalog uses similar subject headings, but if you are in doubt about an appropriate heading to use, ask a librarian at the Information Desk.

MICROFORMS: Various technologies used to film or copy a printed work or manuscript in a much smaller size. Examples of microforms are microfilm, microfiche, and microcard. Generally this is done because the printed copy is in danger of falling apart, or the printed copy is out of print and very rare.

PERIODICALS: Items with the same name that are published on a regular schedule. (Periodicals are also serials, but not all serials are periodicals.) Magazines, journals, newspapers are all periodicals, as are yearbooks, annual reviews, etc.

READING ROOM: The reading room specific to a library division is the area where its materials are read. Divisional reading rooms have small open-shelf reference collections. The Main Reading Room consists of North and South "Halls" in the long gallery perpendicular to the Public Catalog Room.

RESEARCH LIBRARIES: The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library consist of four centers: The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building; The Science, Industry, and Business Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. As in research libraries generally, The New York Public Library's Research Libraries' materials cannot be borrowed. Go to The Research Libraries Home Page

SERIALS: Any library item that appears as part of a series (including series that are produced without a regular schedule).

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS: Collections which are housed separately because of the nature or rarity of their materials. At The New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, these include Rare Books and Manuscripts, Prints, Photographs, the Arents Collection, the Berg Collection, the Spencer Collection, and the Pforzheimer Collection. A card of admission, for which you apply in the Special Collections Office (Room 316), is required to use these collections. Go to Stephen A. Schwarzman Building Home Page

STACKS: The area where the library's books and other materials are stored. In common with other major research libraries, The New York Public Library has "closed stacks": you must request material instead of going to the shelf to retrieve it yourself. The New York Public Library's Branch Libraries have "open stacks" where you may browse and retrieve material yourself.

SUBJECT HEADINGS: Words used in library catalogs and in indexes to describe the contents of a book, periodical, article, or other work. Because there are many possible words to use for the same subject, catalogs and indexes use a controlled vocabulary (such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings).

TELNET: A service that allows you to connect to a remote Internet computer or host; also (in lower case) the program on your computer that uses the Internet to connect to a specified remote computer or host. For example, you can telnet to the Library's CATNYP catalog by sending the following message: telnet nyplgate.nypl.org (login nypl).

THESAURUS: A list of terms which serves as a standardized or controlled vocabulary for identifying, locating, and retrieving information.

UNION CATALOG, UNION LIST: A catalog or list of the holdings of a group of libraries, generally established by cooperative effort, with an indication by library code or other identifier of the libraries holding a given item; e.g., the National Union Catalog, the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, the Union List of Serials.

--Prepared by the General Research Division, November 1995. This is no. 5 in the General Research Division's Research Guides series.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to New York University's Bobst Library, from which some of these definitions have been adapted.

Nietzsche: A Selected Annotated Bibliography

“I know my fate.  One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous-a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision that was conjured up against everything that had been believed, demanded, hallowed so far. I am no man, I am dynamite.” 1

Nietzsche’s Influence

Friedrich Nietzsche's (1844-1900) influence on the present age is all pervasive. In 1955,  Martin Heidegger wrote, it is “Nietzsche, in whose light and shadow all of us today, with our ‘for him’ or ‘against him’ are thinking and writing…” 2   This is even more evident today.  Stanley Rosen has called him the most influential philosopher in the western world; and for Charles Taylor, all contemporary philosophy is neo-Nietzschean.

This influence is reflected in the enormous secondary literature about Nietzsche. The International Nietzsche Bibliography, published in 1968, listed over 4,500 entries in 27 languages; since then more than 3,000 books on Nietzsche have been published.  The Weimarer Nietzsche-Bibliographie, published 2000-2002, includes over 20,000 entries in 42 languages. 

Initially, Nietzsche’s influence was primarily literary and artistic.  Thomas Mann, Herman Hesse, André Gide, William Butler Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O’Neill, August Strindberg, to name but a few, were all influenced by him.  Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud admired him.  Freud stated “that he had a more penetrating knowledge of himself than any man who ever lived or was likely to live.” 3 And Freud stopped reading him because he feared Nietzsche had anticipated many of his own ideas. Interest in Nietzsche as a philosopher, however, only became widespread after World War II.  Although important works about him were published in the thirties by the German philosophers Karl Jaspers, Max Scheler, and Karl Löwith, their influence was limited by the rise of Nazism. It was Martin Heidegger’s lectures on Nietzsche from the 1930’s and 1940’s, but published only in 1961, that was decisive in developing interest in Nietzsche as a philosopher.  Heidegger's interpretation shaped the image of Nietzsche in Europe until the 1970’s, when it was challenged in France in what has become known as “the new Nietzsche” or “the French Nietzsche.” Like Heidegger in Europe, Walter Kaufman’s interpretation of Nietzsche, in Nietzsche:Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (1950), as well as his many translations of Nietzsche, and their accompanying introductions and commentary, determined how Nietzsche was understood in North America up to the 1970’s. 4

If you have any questions or comments about this guide, e-mail jsherefkin@nypl.org.

This research guide is created and maintained by Jack Sherefkin.

Understanding Nietzsche

More than any other philosopher, Nietzsche has been read in vastly different and contradictory ways.  He has been appropriated by both the right and the left; read as a fascist and a socialist, a conservative and a revolutionary, a religious thinker and an atheist.  And interpretations of him continue to multiply.  “Thus the contemporary world is characterized by apparently mutually incompatible claims as to whose Nietzsche is the ‘true’ Nietzsche.” 5

Ironically, one difficulty with understanding Nietzsche is that he is too easy to read. Readers are easily carried away by his brilliant style, by the way he dramatizes and personalizes ideas, and by his passionate intensity. Nietzsche cautioned, with little effect, against reading him quickly: he wrote, I am “a teacher of slow reading… Nowadays it is not only my habit, it is also to my taste…no longer to write anything which does not reduce to despair every sort of man who is ‘in a hurry.’…it is more necessary than ever today…in the midst of an age of ‘work’, that is to say of hurry…which wants to ‘get everything done’ at once…learn to read me well!” 6 

The biggest obstacle, however, to understanding Nietzsche is that his ideas were never systematically developed (he distrusted all systems), but are scattered thoughout his writings and often seem to contradict each other.  As Jaspers writes, “For nearly every single one of Nietzsche’s judgments, one can find an opposite.  He gives the impression of having two opinions about everything.  Consequently it is possible to quote Nietzsche at will in support of anything one happens to have in mind.” 7   Add to that, Nietzsche’s exaggerated rhetoric,  “exaggeration or hyperbole [is the] single most pervasive feature of his writing…” 8  and the result are texts with seemingly endless possible meanings and interpretations.

Consequently, any interpretation of Nietzsche needs to confront the problem of Nietzsche’s many contradictory views.  Many have tried to harmonize these contradictions by organizing Nietzsche’s work around a central idea. For Ernst Behler, whether Nietzsche’s thought can be systematized is the “central question that perhaps every interpretation of Nietzsche must raise; namely, whether the philosopher’s aphoristic and fragmentary text, which apparently rejects final principles and systematic coherence, nevertheless can be read in the style of traditional metaphysics.” 9   The attempt to systematize Nietzsche’s thought is best exemplified by Heidegger, who based his interpretation of Nietzsche on the idea of the will to power (as do Schacht and Kaufmann, although their interpretations are vastly different).  Other scholars have tried to organized Nietzsche’s thought around nihilism (Danto), or eternal recurrence (Lowith, Magnus).

The French Nietzscheans, e.g., Foucault, Derrida, Kofman, Deleuze, and their followers, by contrast, tend to resist this effort to unify his thought, arguing that Nietzsche’s shifting meanings and contradictions resist systematization.  “[M]uch of the French work on Nietzsche can be seen as a refutation of Heidegger’s [metaphysical] interpretation by insisting on the metaphorical character of Nietzsche’s writings, his style, his irony, and his masks.” 10  How Nietzsche writes, his use of aphorisms, metaphors, and wide range of literary styles is seen as important as what he writes about. Nietzsche’s style is not seen as obscuring or concealing his meaning, as has often been argued, but as inseparable from and expressive of it. Nietzsche’s style expresses, in an important way, his philosophy.  For example, Alexander Nehamas argues that Nietzsche “depends on many styles in order to suggest that there is no single, neutral language in which his views, or any others can ever be presented.” 11 

Yet, I would argue, there is a unity or a narrative to Nietzsche’s thought.  Central to his thinking is the idea of the “death of God” and the impending cultural catastrophe, which he called nihilism, that is its consequence.   Nietzsche devoted much of his life to thinking through the consequences of  “this greatest event in history.” As Löwith argues, “Nietzsche’s actual thought is a…system, at the beginning of which stands the death of God…the ensuing nihilism, and at its end the self-surmounting of nihilism in eternal recurrence.” 12

The problem for Nietzsche, and one that exemplifies the contradictory character of his thought, is that although he argues that belief in God has devalued this world, the death of God leads to the belief that life is meaningless.  As Walter Kaufmann writes, “To escape nihilism-which…involved both asserting the existence of God and thus robbing this world of ultimate significance, and also in denying God and thus robbing everything of meaning and value-that is Nietzsche’s greatest and most persistent problem.” 13

The Nietzsche Archive

The New York Public Library has facsimiles of all of Nietzsche’s papers (except the letters) held in the Nietzsche Archive in Weimar, Germany.  These unpublished papers are usually referred to as Nietzsche’s Nachlass.  There are 45 bound volumes.   Volumes 1-5 contain the manuscripts for his published works; volumes 6-8 Nietzsche’s lecture notes; volumes 9-32 philosophical notebooks; volumes 33-42 memoranda; volumes 43-45 musical compositions. *KF 2000 (Nietzsche, F. Fotokopien aus dem Nietzsche-Archiv)

As Linda Williams describes it, the “Nachlass can be divided roughly into three different kinds of work.  The first…comprises the works Nietzsche was editing right before his collapse.  These works are Ecce Homo, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and The Antichrist…The second…are Nietzsche’s early, finished pieces that were never published, the so called Schriften-primarily his lectures and writings while he was employed at Basel…The third…consists of Nietzsche’s notes.   These notes vary from near essay length and form, to extremely sketchy outlines of various projects, to single sentences or sentence fragments…there are passages lined out, words jotted in the margins, and some overwriting.” 14

Although the Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke by Colli and Montinari contains more of Nietzsche’s Nachlass than any previous edition of Nietzsche’s works, there is still much that is not included.  Bernd Magnus estimates that “there is perhaps as much as 25% more material-excluding Nietzsche’s letters, letters to him, and personal effects—than exists in even the very best edition of Nietzsche’s works, the monumental Colli-Montinari edition…The reasons for this…may include the following facts…Montinari, often did not produce the pages and the notations Nietzsche himself crossed out in his handwritten manuscripts…Montinari…excluded…matters he considered ‘personal’…and many editors have excluded all marginalia…” 15

Scholars have taken four basic positions towards the Nachlass.  For Martin Heidegger, the Nachlass is where Nietzsche’s true philosophy is to be found.  “What Nietzsche himself published during his creative life was always foreground…His philosophy proper was left behind as posthumous, unpublished work.” 16  On the other hand, R.J. Hollingdale argued that the notes in the Nachlass that were never incorporated into the published works, were ideas Nietzsche rejected, as should we.  There are other scholars, like Karl Jaspers, Arthur Danto, and Richard Schacht, who use both the published and unpublished material without differentiating between them, not seeing a problem in giving equal weight to writings that were never published.  That is not a problem for material that appeared in the published writings with only minor revision.  But “writings that did not find their way into publication in any form are problematic.  Are they rough drafts of some future work which Nietzsche was unable to complete due to his illness…Are they ideas that Nietzsche entertained but ultimately rejected?  If so, we should not place them on par with the ideas in his published works.” 17

Lastly, there is the position of scholars like Bernd Magnus, and Linda Williams who take the “position of carefully differentiating between the two sets of writings….[and] treat the Nachlass entries as thought experiments…they do not advise ignoring the Nachlass entries altogether, but they also do not treat the entries with the same degree of confidence as the works Nietzsche authorized for publication.” 18  

How much importance is given to the Nachlass has consequences on how Nietzsche is interpreted.   For example, it can lead to differences “over the importance of the concept of the will to power (which is mentioned rarely in published works) and the cosmological version of the doctrine of eternal recurrence (which appears only in unpublished works).” 19

History of the Nietzsche Archive

Hoffmann, David Marc.  Zur Geschichte des Nietzsche-Archivs.  (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1991) JFD 92-1543

Considered the best history of the Nietzsche Archive.

Nietzsche’s Library

Bibliothek Nietzsches   (S) *Z-9994

This is the microfilm of the approximately 900 books in Nietzsche’s library. About 170 of the books are annotated, many heavily, by Nietzsche.  It should be noted “less than half of the books he read are…found in his library.” Thomas Brobjer, p. 680 (see below).

Bibliothek Nietzsches: Verzeichnis in systematishcher Anordnung nach Oehler. (Weimar: Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, 1997)   (S) *Z-9994+ [Index]

A one-volume index to the microfilm of Nietzsche’s library. (This index is also on microfilm.) Titles are arranged by subject, author, and by the call numbers used at the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar.

Brobjer, Thomas H.  “Nietzsche’s Reading and Private Library, 1885-1889.” Journal of the History of Ideas 58.4 (1997) 663-680  *ZAN-4694 also available on the database, Project Muse

This is a study of what Nietzsche read, his reading habits, and the books he owned. Brobjer thinks it’s important to know both what Nietzsche read and the annotations he made in his books.

Campioni, Giuliano et al.  Nietzsches persönliche Bibliothek. (Berlin; New York: W. de Gruyter, 2003).  (S) *Z-9994+ [Notation Guide]

This study attempts to reconstruct all the books that were in Nietzsche’s library, many of which no longer exist. Also, it lists the pages, in the books Nietzsche owned, where he underlined passages or wrote comments in the margins. (A valuable aid when using the microfilm of Nietzsche’s library.)

Collected Editions in German

Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke.  ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. 40 vols., (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1967- )   L -11 2506

The Colli-Montinari edition supersedes all earlier Nietzsche editions.  Forty of the projected fifty volumes have been published.

It is also available electronically through Past Masters, a database available on our Selected Electronic Resources.  This makes possible word and phrase searches of Nietzsche’s complete works.

Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Briefwechsel.  ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. 24 vols., (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1975-84)  JFL 75-286  Also available, in part, electronically, through Past Masters on our Selected Electronic Resources.

 This edition supersedes all earlier editions.

Der musikalische Nachlass.  ed. Curt Paul Janz.  (Basel: Bärenreiter, 1976).  JMG 77-297

Nietzsche’s Published Works in English

The following are English translations of books that Nietzsche published or intended to publish.  It does not list all the English translations of Nietzsche.

Complete Works.  ed. Oscar Levy.  (New York: Russell & Russell, 1964)  D-1 2617

Walter Kaufmann wrote, “ These translations…are thoroughly unreliable.  None of the translators were philosophers, few were scholars…” Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, p. 486.

Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche. ed.  Bernd Magnus.  (20 vols., (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995 onwards).

Three volumes have appeared to date in what will be the first complete, critical, and annotated English translation of all of Nietzsche’s published work and selected notebooks.  This will correspond with the Kritische Studienausgabe (KSA), which is a shorten version of Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke.

The Antichrist (Der Antichrist, 1888).  trans. Walter Kaufmann in The Portable Nietzsche (New York: Penguin, 1982).  JFD 02-3631

Beyond Good and Evil (Jenseits von Gut und Böse, 1886).  trans. Walter Kaufmann. (New York: Vintage, 1966).   JFD 00-11292

Birth of Tragedy (Die Geburt der Tragödie, 1872). trans. Walter Kaufmann.  (New York: Vintage, 1966).  JFC 00-1638

The Case of Wagner (Der Fall Wagner, 1888).  trans. Walter Kaufmann, with The Birth of Tragedy (New York: Vintage, 1966).  JFC 00-1638

David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer (David Strauss der Bekenner und der Schriftsteller, 1873).  trans. R.J. Hollingdale in Untimely Meditations (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983).  JFD 84-1883

Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality (Morganröthe, 1881).  trans. R.J. Hollingdale.  (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982). JFD 83-3580

Dithyrambs of Dionysus (Dionysos-Dithyramben, 1892).  Bilingual ed., trans. R.J. Hollingdale. (London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1984).  JFL 79-247 no. 16     

Ecce Homo (Ecce Homo, completed 1888, first published 1908) with On the Genealogy of Morals. (New York: Vintage, 1967). trans. Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale (New York: Penguin, 1979).  JFD 00-19363

The Gay Science (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, Books I-IV, 1882; second edition with preface and Book V, 1887).  trans. Walter Kaufmann.  (New York: Vintage, 1974). JFD 74-7467

Human, All Too Human (Menschliches, Allzumenschliches, first volume, 1878; first part of second volume Assorted Opinions and Maxims, 1879; second part of second volume, The Wanderer and His Shadow, 1880).  trans. R.J. Hollingdale. 2 vols. in 1, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).  JFD 86-8517

Nietzsche contra Wagner (Nietzsche contra Wagner, completed 1888, first published 1895).  trans. Walter Kaufmann in The Portable Nietzsche.  JFD 02-3631

On the Genealogy of Morals (Zur Genealogie der Moral, 1887). trans. Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. (New York: Vintage, 1967).  JFD 00-19363

On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life (Von Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben, 1874).  trans. R.J. Hollingdale in Untimely Meditations (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983).  JFD 84-1883

Richard Wagner in Bayreuth (Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, 1876). trans. R.J. Hollingdale in Untimely Meditations.  JFD 84-1883

Schopenhauer as Educator (Schopenhauer als Erzeiher, 1874).  trans. R.J. Hollingdale in Untimely Meditations   JFD 84-1883

Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Also Sprach Zarathustra, Parts I and II, 1883; Part III, 1884; Part IV, 1885).  trans. Walter Kaufmann. in The Portable Nietzsche.  JFD 02-3631

Twilight of the Idols (Götzen-Dämmerung, 1889).  trans. Walter Kaufmann in The Portable Nietzsche.  JFD 02-3631

Untimely Meditations (Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen, 1873-76).  trans. R.J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).  JFD 84-1883

Nietzsche’s Unpublished Works in English

The following are English translations of Nietzsche’s unpublished works.

“The Birth of Tragic Thought.” (Die Geburt des tragischen Gedankens). trans. Ursula Bernis, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 9, no. 2, Fall 1983, 3-15.  JFL 94-647

“The Dionysian Worldview.” (Die dionysische Weltanschauung). trans. Claudia Crawford,  Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 13, 1997, 81-97. JFL 01-623

“Fate and History.” (Fatum und Geschichte). trans. George J. Stack,  Philosophy Today 37, 2, 1993, 154-156.  *ZAN-4425

“Freedom of the Will and Fate.” (Freiheit des Willens und Fatum). trans. George J. Stack,  Philosophy Today, 37, 2, 1993, 156-158.  *ZAN-4425

Friedrich Nietzsche on Rhetoric and Language.  ed. and trans. Sander L. Gilman, Carole Blair, and David J. Parent.  (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).  JFD 00-11179

“My Life.” (Mein Leben). trans. R.J. Hollingdale, Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 3, 1992, 5-9.  JFL 01-623

“On Moods.” (Über Stimmungen). trans. Graham Parkes in Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 2, 1991, 5-11.  JFL 01-623

“On Music and Words.” (Über Musik und Wort). trans. Walter Kaufmann, in Carl Dahlhaus, Between Romanticism and Modernism: Four Studies in the Music of the Later 19th Century. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980) 106-19.  JMD 81-43

“On Schopenhauer.” (Zu Schopenhauer). trans. Christopher Janaway in Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s Educator. ed. Christopher Janaway. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) 258-265.   JFE 99-2530

“On the Future of Our Educational Institutions.” (Über die Zukunft unserer Bildungsanstalten). trans. Michael W. Grenke. (South Bend, Ind: St. Augustine’s Press, 2004) JFE 04-10757

“On the Relationship of Alcibiades Speech to the Other Speeches in Plato’s Symposium.” (Über das Verhältnis der Rede des Alcibiades zu den übrigen Reden des platonischen Symposions). trans. David Scialdone, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, v.15. no. 2, 1991, 3-5.  JFL 94-647

“On Teleology, or Teleology since Kant.” trans. Paul Swift,  Nietzscheana 8, 2000, 1-20.  JFF 03-87 no. 8

“On the Theory of Quantitative Rhythm.” (Zur Theorie der quantitierenden Rhythmik). trans. James Halporn, Arion, 6, 1967, 233-243.  K-10 3730

"On Truth and Lie in a Nonmoral Sense." (Über Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne," 1873). trans. Walter Kaufmann in The Portable Nietzsche *R-YBX (NIETZSCHE) 02-270

Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks (Die Philosophie im tragischen Zeitalter der Griechen, 1870-73). trans. Marianne Cowan. (South Bend, IN: Gateway, 1962).     JFD 01-14699     

Philosophy and Truth: Selections from Nietzsche’s Notebooks of the Early 1870s. ed. and trans. Daniel Breazeale. (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1979).  JFE 80-99

The Poetry of Friedrich Nietzsche. trans. with commentary by Philip Grundlehner. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).  JFE 87-2331

Prefaces to unwritten works ( Fünf Vorreden zu fünf ungeschriebenen Büchern) trans. and ed. by Michael W. Grenke. (South Bend, Ind: St. Augustine's Press, 2005) JFE 05-8009

The Pre-Platonic Philosophers.  trans. Greg Whitlock.  (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001)  JFE 01-13267

“Time-Atom Theory.” (Nachgelassene Fragment, early 1873). trans. Carol Diethe with modifications by Keith Ansell Pearson, The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 20, 2000, 1-4.  JFL 01-623

Unpublished Writings from the Period of Unfashionable Observations, The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche. vol. 11. trans. Richard T. Gray.  (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1999)  JFC 02-1211

We Classicists (Wir Philologen, 1875).  trans. William Arrowsmith in Unmodern Observations. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).  JFE 90-3192

The Will to Power (Der Wille zur Macht  published in editions of increasing size in 1901, 1904, and 1910-11).  trans. Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. (New York: Vintage, 1967).  *R-YBX (Nietzsche) 99-11018

Although described by Elizabeth Förster-Nietzsche, Nietzsche’s sister, as Nietzsche’s magnum opus, this is not one of Nietzsche’s books.   It is a collection of notes from Nietzsche’s notebooks that was selected and arranged by Nietzsche’s sister and Peter Gast after Nietzsche’s death.

Writings from the Late Notebooks.  ed. Rüdiger Bittner and trans. Kate Sturge. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).  JFE 03-12965

Letters

Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche.  ed. and trans. Christopher Middleton. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969).   E-13 7544

Nietzsche: A Self-Portrait from His Letters. ed. and trans. Peter Fuss and Henry Shapiro.  (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971).  JFD 72-4854

Bibliographies

Weimarer Nietzsche-Bibliographie.  comp.  Susanne Jung, et. al. (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000-2002).   JFL 00-502

This is the most comprehensive bibliography on Nietzsche including over 20,000 citations dating from 1867 to 1998.  Volume 1 lists Nietzsche’s works, including translations into 42 languages, and volumes 2 through 5, the secondary literature.

International Nietzsche Bibliography. ed.  Herbert W. Reichert and Karl Schlechta. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968).  *RB-YBX (Nietzsche)'

An important guide to the secondary literature, listing more than 4,500 titles in 27 languages. An expanded edition for the period 1968-72 was published in Nietzsche-Studien, v.2, 1973: 320-39.  This has been superseded by the Weimarer Nietzsche-Bibliographie.

Babich, Babette.  “Nietzsche and Music: Selective Bibliography.” New Nietzsche Studies, 1:1/2, 1996, 64-78.  JFK 00-74

Babich, Babette.  “Nietzsche, Classic Philology and Ancient Philosophy: A Research Bibliography.” New Nietzsche Studies, 4:1/2, 2000, 171-91.  JFK 00-74

Hollingdale, R.J. “‘The Birth of Tragedy’: A Checklist of Criticism, 1872-1972.” The Malahat Review, 24, 1972, 177-182.  L -11 2431

Kaufmann, Walter.  Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, 4th ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980).  *R-YBX (Nietzsche) (Kaufmann, W.A. Nietzsche)

Kaufmann’s book includes a useful annotated bibliography.

Kummel, Richard Frank. Nietzsche und der deutsche Geist.  (Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 1998.  (Monographien und Texte zur Nietzsche-Forschung, 3, 9, 40). 3 vols.   JFL 99-85

 An exhaustive, annotated, three-volume bibliography which traces the influence of Nietzsche’s works on German thought from 1867 to 1945.    Newspaper articles, diaries, and correspondence are included in the almost 5,700 items listed. 

Löwith, Karl.  “On the History of the Interpretation of Nietzsche (1894-1954).” in Nietzsche’s Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same.  trans. J. Harvey Lomax.  (Berkelely: University of California Press, 1997).  JFE 99-9334

An annotated bibliography limited to those authors who have focused on the problem of the eternal recurrence in Nietzsche.

Schaberg, William H.  The Nietzsche Canon: A Publication History and Bibliography.     (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).  JFE 96-2609

Schaberg gives a detailed publication history of Nietzsche’s works and his relationship with his publishers.  He also provides a detailed bibliography of all the editions of Nietzsche’s works that Nietzsche had published.

Vattimo, Gianni.  Nietzsche: An Introduction.  (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001).  JFD 02-17513

An excellent introduction to Nietzsche that includes a fine, international bibliography of works about him.

Concordance

Haase, Marie-Luise & Jorg Salaquarda,  “Konkordanz.  Der Wille zur Macht: Nachlass in chronologischer Ordnung der Kritischen Gesamtausgabe.” Nietzsche-Studien, (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980) 9: 446-490.  JFL 73-382

The definitive concordance to Der Wille zur Macht.

Simmons, Scott.  “A Concordance Indexing The Will to Power with the Critical Editions of Nietzsche’s Collected Works (KGW & KSA)” New Nietzsche Studies, 1:1/2, Fall/Winter 1996, 126-53.  JFK 00-74

This index enables the scholar to move between Der Wille zur Macht and its English translation, The Will to Power.

Biographies

Andreas-Salomé, Lou.  Nietzsche. (Redding Ridge, CT: Black Swan Books, 1988)      JFD 88-9117

Written in 1894, by this Russian-born woman of letters, to whom Nietzsche had proposed marriage through a third party.  Salome ties Nietzsche’s philosophy to his illnesses and concludes that Nietzsche’s madness was the result of his philosophical views.

Binion, Rudolf.  Frau Lou: Nietzsche’s Wayward Disciple. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968).  E-13 5168

A fine study of Nietzsche’s relationship with Lou Salomé.

Gilman, Sander L., ed. Conversations With Nietzsche: a Life in the Words of His Contemporaries. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) JFE 87-6031

Accounts of conversations, anecdotes, and recollections of Nietzsche, by people who knew him personally.

Hollingdale, R.J.  Nietzsche: The Man and His Philosophy, rev. ed. (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999).  JFE 00-1342

Considered by many to be the best biography of Nietzsche in English.  Hollingdale’s understanding of Nietzsche’s thought is strongly influenced by Walter Kaufmann (see below). 

Hollinrake, Roger.  Nietzsche, Wagner, and the Philosophy of Pessimism. (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982).  JFD 83-179

A good account of Nietzsche's involvement with Wagner's music and ideas. Concentrating on Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, Hollinrake argues that it was Nietzsche’s reply to Wagner.

Janz, C.P.  Friedrich Nietzsche: Biographie, rev. ed. (Munchen: C. Hanser, 1993) 3 v. JFD 94-7021

 The definitive biography in German.

Safranski, Rudiger.  Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, trans. Shelley Frisch. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2002).    JFE 02-20934

In this major new biography, Safranski, who has written excellent biographies on Schopenhauer and Heidegger, traces the background and development of Nietzsche’s thought.  Details of his life are provided only in so far as they illuminate his thought.

Nietzsche’s Philosophy

Allison, David B.  Reading the New Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy, The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and On the Genealogy of Morals.  (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2001).  JFE 01-4401

Focusing on a few themes, Allison provides a lucid reading of these four major works of Nietzsche. He is especially good at using the events of Nietzsche’s life to illuminate his thought.  Allison’s reading of Nietzsche is influenced by the French Nietzscheans, e.g., Bataille, Derrida, Deleuze and Foucault.         

Conway, Daniel W., ed.  Nietzsche: Critical Assessments. (London: Routledge, 1998),    4 vols.   JFE 01-2807

A four-volume compilation of the best in Nietzsche scholarship.

Danto, Arthur C.  Nietzsche as Philosopher. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005).  JFD 05-4460

An influential book for Nietzsche studies in America.   Danto shows how Nietzsche’s ideas foreshadowed many of the problems of analytic philosophy.  For Danto, the problem of nihilism is at the core of Nietzsche’s thought.

Fink, Eugen.  Nietzsche’s Philosophy, trans. Goetz Richter. (London; New York: Continuum, 2003). JFE 03-13081

Fink agrees with Heidegger, his teacher, that Nietzsche’s will to power is the culmination of western metaphysics.  But for Fink, it is Nietzsche’s idea of the world as a play of forces, derived from Heraclitus, that is the core of Nietzsche’s philosophy, and takes him beyond traditional philosophy. 

Heidegger, Martin.  Nietzsche, trans. David Krell. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979-1987) 4 vols.  *R-YBX (Nietzsche) 80-1742

This is a compilation of Heidegger’s lectures and articles on Nietzsche from the 1930s and the 1940s.   For Heidegger, Nietzsche’s main idea is the will to power, although it must be thought together with the eternal return.   Since the idea of the will to power is rarely mentioned in Nietzsche’s published writings, Heidegger relies heavily on Nietzsche’s unpublished writings, especially those collected under the title of The Will to Power.

_____. “Nietzsche’s Word: God is Dead,” in The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. trans. William Lovitt.  (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), 53-114. JFD 91-11380

This essay summarizes much of what Heidegger said in his five semesters of lectures on Nietzsche (see above).  For Heidegger, Nietzsche’s statement, “God is dead”, represents the death of the transcendent realm and hence of metaphysics.

Jaspers, Karl.  Nietzsche: An Introduction to the Understanding of His Philosophical Activity, trans. Charles F. Wallraff and Frederick J. Schmitz.  (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).    *RR-YBX (Nietzsche) (Jaspers, K. Nietzsche)

An important work by a major German philosopher.  Jaspers tends to discount the value of Nietzsche’s ideas, all of which he finds hopelessly contradictory.  He believes that Nietzsche offers no teaching or worldview; rather, it is his philosophizing, his thinking, that questions everything, which is of most importance.

Kaufmann, Walter.  Nietzsche:Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist,  4th ed. rev. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980).  *R-YBX (Nietzsche) (Kaufmann, W.A. Nietzsche)

This is probably the best introduction to Nietzsche’s philosophy. Kaufmann’s interpretation has long dominated the picture of Nietzsche in North America.  For Kaufmann, “will to power”, understood as a psychological principle, and “self-overcoming” form the center of Nietzsche’s thought.

Montinari, Mazzino. Reading Nietzsche, trans. Greg Whitlock. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003). JFE 03-5727

This collection of essays and lectures by Montinari grew out of his work as coeditor of the critical edition of Nietzsche’s collected works in German. The “essays collected here-have no other purpose than as instruction on reading Nietzsche.” p. 5. An important work.

Muller-Lauter, Wolfgang.  Nietzsche: His Philosophy of Contradictions and the Contradictions of His Philosophy, trans. David J. Parent.  (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999).  JFE 99-6424

Muller-Lauter, writing in 1971, attempted to challenge Heidegger’s influential reading of Nietzsche, especially the idea that the will to power is a metaphysical principle. For Muller-Lauter, the contradictions in Nietzsche’s philosophy become understandable when Nietzsche’s philosophy of contradiction is understood.

Nehamas, Alexander.  Nietzsche, Life as Literature. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985).  JFE 85-4601

In this influential book, Nehamas argues that Nietzsche understands the world “as if it were a literary text.”   For Nehamas, Nietzsche’s aestheticism and his perspectivism (that all views, including his own, are just one of many possible interpretations) are intimately related, and provide the key to resolving the contradictions and paradoxes of his thought.  For  “literary texts can be interpreted equally well in vastly different and deeply incompatible ways.  Nietzsche…also holds that exactly the same is true of the world itself.” p. 3.

Richardson, John.  Nietzsche’s System.  (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).  JFE 96-5712

In spite of Nietzsche's rejection of all systems of philosophy, Richardson argues that Nietzsche's thought forms a system organized around the principle of the will to power. Like Heidegger, Richardson relies heavily on Nietzsche's Nachlass to support this interpretation.

Schacht, Richard.  Nietzsche.  (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983).  *R-YBX (Nietzsche) 99-11013

Schact provides detailed and lengthy analyses of many different aspects of Nietzsche’s thought, treating him as a traditional philosopher with opinions on all the traditional philosophical questions.

Schacht, Richard. Making Sense of Nietzsche: Reflections Timely and Untimely. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995). JFE 95-6934

This collection of essays is divided into two parts. In the first, Schacht refutes some contemporary interpretations of Nietzsche. In the second, he offers his own views on specific texts of Nietzsche. A good guide to current Nietzsche scholarship.

Nietzsche’s Influence

Aschheim, Steven E.  The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990.  (Berkeley: University of Californina Press, 1993). JFE 93-12857

Aschheim makes no attempt to explain what Nietzsche means, but rather restricts himself to tracing all the different ways Nietzsche has been understood.  To this end, he examines the history of Nietzsche’s reception in Germany and the adoption of his ideas by every major social, political and intellectual movement.

Behler, Ernst.  “Nietzsche in the twentieth century,” The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche.  ed. Bernd Magnus and Kathleen Higgins.  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 281-322.  *R-YBX (Nietzsche) 96-6086

A lucid history of how Nietzsche has been interpreted by philosophers in the 20th century.

Nietzsche’s Epistemology

Nietzsche repeatedly called into question the value of truth.   Scholars have ascribed every major theory of truth to him, while others have claimed he has no epistemology nor was he interested in one.

Clark, Maudemarie.  Nietzsche On Truth and Philosophy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).   JFD 91-4468

The most comprehensive book on Nietzsche’s theory of truth.  Clark is critical of scholars such as Derrida, DeMan, and Nehamas who claim that Nietzsche is a nihilist, who believes there is no truth.   For Clark, the belief that there is no truth is an early position that Nietzsche gave up in his later writings.

Cox, Christoph.  Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation.  (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).

For Cox, the “death of God” is what gives unity to Nietzsche’s seemingly fragmentary thought and is the foundation for his naturalism, i.e., his rejection of metaphysical principles to explain how we know.  Clear and concise, this is a superb account of Nietzsche’s theory of truth.  Also, the footnotes, often with a dozen citations, provide excellent overviews of the conflicting interpretations among Nietzsche scholars.

Nietzsche & Political Thought

Nietzsche's politics are probably the most controversial aspect of his thought. After World War II, Walter Kaufmann helped rehabilitate Nietzsche in the English-speaking world from his reputation as a Nazi, fostered by Nietzsche’s sister and the Nietzsche archive that she founded.  For Kaufmann, Nietzsche was uninterested and contemptuous of politics; his concern was, rather, with “the anti-political individual who seeks self-perfection far from the modern world." 20  This view of Nietzsche, and long the accepted opinion, has been challenged in recent years. Those who argue that Nietzsche was a political thinker take two main approaches.  One is to argue that an aristocratic order is the political solution to Nietzsche’s despair over the leveling effects of democracy and his hope for higher men. The other is to claim that in spite of Nietzsche’s contempt for democracy, a progressive and democratic politics can built upon his ideas, usually by arguing that his politics doesn’t follow from his philosophy.

With the revival of interest in Nietzsche’s politics, there has also arisen fresh interest in his relationship to Nazism.  Nietzsche’s elitism and fierce rejection of equality and democracy places him on the right, politically.  But as Harold Bloom argues, “Elitism is not protofascism.  Elitism is the condition of the spirit…” 21  Also, attempts to make him a proto-Nazi stumble against Nietzsche’s hatred of anti-Semitism, his rejection of nationalism, his condemnation of the German Reich, and “his break with Wagner and all that it signifies [since] Wagnerian ideology foreshadowed…a good deal of the völkisch tenets of National Socialism.” 22

Ansell-Pearson, Keith.  An Introduction to Nietzsche as Political Thinker: the Perfect Nihilist.  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).  JFD 94-18211

A good introduction that surveys the wide range of interpretations of Nietzsche’s political thought, from conservative and authoritarian to liberal and left wing.

Bergmann, Peter.  Nietzsche, “The Last Antipolitical German”. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1987).  JFE 87-1719

Nietzsche referred to himself, in Ecce Homo, as “the last anti-political German.”  Bergmann’s biography tries to explain Nietzsche’s statement in light of the historical and political controversies of his time.

Conway, Daniel W.  Nietzsche and the Political.  (New York: Routledge, 1996).  JFE 97-3024

“Political perfectionism” is how Conway describes Nietzsche’s politics.   Nietzsche’s primary goal is self-perfection through self-overcoming.  The aim of politics is to promote that goal and to create the conditions for the development of genius.

Detweiler, Bruce.  Nietzsche and the Politics of Aristocratic Radicalism. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).  JFD 90-4770

Detweiler argues against scholars such as Walter Kaufmann and Peter Bergmann that Nietzsche was apolitical.  Contempt for liberal democracy and the belief in an aristocracy of “higher men” is central to Nietzsche, according to Detweiler.

Hatab, Lawrence.  A Nietzschean Defense of Democracy: An Experiment in Postmodern Politics.  (Chicago, Ill: Open Court, 1995)  JFE 96-2855

Hatab believes that a democratic politics can be created out of Nietzsche’s thought. Nietzsche’s belief in the need for a multitude of perspectives, and the necessity of competition or contest to promote excellence is, Hatab argues, best promoted by democracy, not aristocracy.

Strong, Tracy.  Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration.  (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000).  JFE 00-8370

Strong argues that Nietzsche was not advocating a politics of domination, but of transfiguration.  In arguing this, he focuses on how Nietzsche understood the Greeks, especially Greek tragedy, whose essence, for Nietzsche, is transfiguration.

Thiele, Leslie Paul.  Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul: A Study of Heroic Individualism.  (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).

For Thiele, Nietzsche doesn’t reject politics, rather he internalizes it.  Nietzsche understood the soul to be a multiplicity of conflicting forces best described in political terms.   This “politics of the soul” is where Nietzsche’s politics is to be found.

Nietzsche’s Moral Philosophy

Despite his denunciations of traditional morality, Nietzsche is no hedonist or libertine.  This self-described immoralist is an advocate of a high and severe morality.  As Nietzsche wrote to Paul Ree in 1882, “She told me herself that she had no morality-and I thought she had, like myself, a more severe morality than anybody.”  

Berkowitz, Peter.  Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist.  (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).  JFE 95-8728

For Berkowitz, Nietzsche is primarily an ethical thinker concerned with what is the best life and the creation of a severe, aristocratic ethic.  This is contrary to the views of many current scholars, including Derrida and Deleuze, who stress Nietzsche’s theory of interpretation and language. 

Leiter, Brian.  Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Nietzsche on Morality.  (New York: Routledge, 2002).  JFD 03-9088

This is considered by many to be the best full-length account of the Genealogy of Morals. Leiter first offers a naturalistic interpretation of Nietzsche’s approach to morality followed by a detailed commentary of the text.

Nietzsche and Psychology

For Nietzsche, psychology is the “queen of the sciences [and]…the path to fundamental problems.” 23   And above all, he saw himself as a psychologist.  Often, rather than refuting an idea or doctrine, he thought it enough to uncover the ignoble motives and emotions behind them.  Furthermore, he thought it impossible to separate a philosopher’s life from his thought, and he saw all great philosophy as involuntary and unconscious autobiography.

Parkes, Graham.  Composing the Soul: Reaches of Nietzsche’s Psychology.  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).  JFE 95-166

This is the most exhaustive study of Nietzsche’s psychology.  Parkes argues that Nietzsche anticipated modern depth psychology and psychoanalysis.  Considerable attention is given to the idea of a ‘multiple soul,’ which Parkes believes is “the most revolutionary aspect of Nietzsche’s psychology.” p. 18.

Staten, Henry.  Nietzsche’s Voice. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990) JFE 91-1307

“Most of the conscious thinking of a philosopher” Nietzsche writes, “is secretly guided and forced into certain channels by his instincts.” 24  Taking Nietzsche at his word, Staten gives a psychological reading, tracing the influence of instinct, drive, and desire on Nietzsche’s thought. This is a subtle and illuminating work.

Eternal Recurrence

The eternal recurrence, the belief that everything that has happened and will happen, will happen again, an infinite number of times, has been treated as a cosmological doctrine, while others have stressed its psychological aspect.

Lowith, Karl.  Nietzsche’s Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same, trans. J. Harvey Lomax.  (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997).  JFE 99-9334

A major interpretation of Nietzsche first published in Germany in 1935.  The eternal recurrence is the fundamental idea of Nietzsche’s philosophy, according to Lowith, who argues that with this idea Nietzsche hoped to overcome nihilism and return man to nature.

Magnus, Bernd.  Nietzsche’s Existential Imperative.  (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978).  JFE 78-2655

For Magnus, the eternal return is Nietzsche’s central idea, representing the highest affirmation of this life as embodied in the most life affirming person, the Übermensch.

Stambaugh, Joan.  Nietzsche’s Thought of Eternal Return.  (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1972).  JFE 02-3378

Stambaugh analyzes the idea of the eternal return by examining its conceptual parts, i.e., eternity, recurrence, and the same.  Like Heidegger, she sees the concepts of will to power and the eternal return as inseparable.

The “New Nietzsche” (Nietzsche & the French)

Allison, David B., ed.  The New Nietzsche: Contemporary Styles of Interpretation.  (New York: Dell Publishing, 1977).   JFD 80-1009

An influential anthology with essays by Heidegger, Deleuze, Derrida, Kofman, Klossowski, and others.

Behler, Ernst.  Confrontations: Derrida, Heidegger, Nietzsche.  (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991).  JFD 92-9712

Derrida's reading of Nietzsche as a thinker of infinite interpretations is contrasted with Heidegger's metaphysical interpretation of Nietzsche. 

Derrida, Jacques.  Spurs: Nietzsche’s Style, trans. Barbara Harlow.  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).  JFE 80-426

In contrast to Heidegger’s metaphysical interpretation of Nietzsche, Derrida argues that Nietzsche’s fragmentary and contradictory writings have more than one meaning.  For Derrida, “there is no such thing as the truth of Nietzsche or of Nietzsche’s text.” p. 53.

Deleuze, Giles.  Nietzsche and Philosophy, trans. Hugh Tomlinson. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983).  JFD 83-2646

First published in 1962, this study helped to create interest in Nietzsche in France and influenced thinkers such as Derrida and Foucault.  Deleuze emphasizes the multiple meanings and indeterminacy of Nietzsche’s thought. For Deleuze, Nietzsche understands life as a contest between “active” (life affirming) and “reactive” (life denying) forces.

De Man, Paul.  Allegories of Reading: Figural Language in Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Proust.  (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979).   JFE 80-389

An important book for French and postmodernist readings of Nietzsche.  For de Man, “the key to Nietzsche’s critique of metaphysics…lies in the rhetorical model of the trope…in literature as language grounded in rhetoric.” p. 109.  De Man’s essay is based almost exclusively on Nietzsche’s lecture notes on rhetoric and his unpublished essay, “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense.” 

Foucault, Michel.  “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, trans. Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon.  (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977).  JFD 78-1452

This influential essay was important for identifying Nietzsche with postmodernism.  Foucault’s genealogies of psychiatry, sexuality, and the prison are indebted to Nietzsche’s idea that there are no fixed meanings or essences behind things, only  interpretations.

Klossowski, Pierre.  Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle, trans. Daniel M. Smith.  (London: Athlone, 1993).  JFD 98-3548

For Klossowski, the many contradictions in Nietzsche’s philosophy reflected his understanding of the soul as a multiplicity of forces.

Kofman, Sarah.  Nietzsche and Metaphor, trans. Duncan Large.  (London: Athlone Press, 1993).  JFD 95-10444

For Kofman, Nietzsche’s use of metaphor is not only literary, but also reinforces the belief that concepts are dead metaphors as expressed in Nietzsche’s unpublished essay, “On Truth and Lie in a Nonmoral Sense.”  According to Nietzsche, it is the forgetfulness of the metaphorical origin of concepts that leads to the mistaken belief that concepts literally represent reality.  The metaphorical character of Nietzsche’s concepts serves to foil any definitive reading of his philosophy.

Schrift, Alan D. Nietzsche’s French Legacy: A Genealogy of Poststructuralism. (New York: Routledge, 1995) JFE 95-18849

Schrift provides a good overview of the French reception of Nietzsche. He shows how the thought of Derrida, Deleuze, Foucault, and Cixous made use of Nietzsche in developing their own ideas.

The Birth of Tragedy

“I found the turning point in the modern understanding of early Greek thought to be the publication just a hundred years ago of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy.” 25

Porter, James I.  Nietzsche and the Philology of the Future.  (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).  JFE 01-9290

With careful readings of Nietzsche’s early, mostly unpublished philological writings, Porter argues for the continuity between them and the Birth of Tragedy.  (This is contrary to the views of many scholars who see the Birth of Tragedy as a decisive break in Nietzsche’s development.)  Porter also argues that the problems that Nietzsche wrestled with in his later writings are to be found in these early writings.

Silk, M.S. and J.P. Stern.  Nietzsche on Tragedy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).  JFE 81-2696

The most detailed study of Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy.

Soll, Ivan.  “Pessimism and the Tragic View of Life: Reconsiderations of Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy” in Reading Nietzsche, eds. Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 104-131.  JFD 89-2052

Soll asserts that Schopenhauer’s influence on the Birth of Tragedy was considerable and that Nietzsche’s assessment that it was minimal should be rejected.  The problem of the inevitably of suffering in life, central to the Birth of Tragedy, led Nietzsche to a Schoperhauerian pessimism in spite of his efforts to overcome it.

Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, Ulrich von, “Future Philology! A Reply to The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche,” New Nietzsche Studies 4: 1/2, 2000, 1-32 JFK 00-74

A translation of the famous attack on Nietzsche’s first book.

The Gay Science

Schacht, Richard.  “Nietzsche’s Gay Science, Or, How to Naturalize Cheerfully,” in Reading Nietzsche, ed. Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 68-86.   JFD 89-2052

For Schacht, the Gay Science is Nietzsche’s most comprehensive attempt to trace the consequences of the “death of God.”  The results are the “de-deification of nature” and the naturalization of humanity.

Allison, David B.  Reading the New Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy, The Gay Science, Thus Spake Zarathustra, and On the Genealogy of Morals. ( Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 71-110.  JFE 01-4401

Allison is superb at weaving in incidents of Nietzsche’s life and his letters to show us why Nietzsche thought The Gay Science was his most personal work.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

For Mazzino Montinari, editor of the complete critical edition of the works of Nietzsche and the leading scholar of the Nachlass, “[Nietzsche’s] notebooks from autumn 1882 to winter 1884-85 constitute the absolute necessary supplementary background of the four parts of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.  Better than does any commentary to this work, the Zarathustra fragments and plans elucidate Nietzsche ’s intentions…” 26

Heidegger, Martin.  “Who is Nietzsche’s Zarathustra?” trans. Bernd Magnus, in The New Nietzsche: Contemporary Styles of Interpretation, ed. David B. Allison. (New York: Dell, 1977), 64-79.   JFD 80-1009

For Heidegger, the doctrine of the eternal return is the path to the übermensch and a life free from the spirit of revenge.

Higgins, Kathleen Marie. Nietzsche’s Zarathustra. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987). JFD 88-149

Although Nietzsche considered Thus Spoke Zarathustra his most important work, many scholars believe it has little philosophical importance. Higgins challenges this in a reading that focuses on its literary structure, seeing parody (of both the Platonic dialogues and the New Testament), tragedy, and Bildungsroman as literary models that operate throughout the book.

Lampert, Laurence.  Nietzsche’s Teaching: An Interpretation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.  (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986).  JFE 87-2277

Considered the best commentary on Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Lampert provides a detailed, chapter by chapter, analysis.  Lampert wants also to demonstrate that Zarathustra is central to understanding all of Nietzsche’s philosophy.

Beyond Good and Evil

Lampert, Laurence.  Nietzsche’s Task: An Interpretation of Beyond Good and Evil.  (New Haven: Yale University, 2001).  JFE 02-5730

For Lampert, Nietzsche is, above all, a political philosopher.    His detailed, section by section, commentary of Beyond Good and Evil also serves to support his interpretation that Nietzsche is arguing for a creation of a higher culture ruled by his new philosophers. It is a reading strongly influenced by Leo Strauss (see below).

Strauss, Leo.  “Notes on the Plan of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil,” Interpretation 3 (Winter 1973), 97-113.  JFL 95-120

Lawrence Lampert, in his book Leo Strauss and Nietzsche (which is essentially a detailed commentary of this essay) argues that this is “the most comprehensive and profound study ever published on Nietzsche.” p. 2.    

Nehamas, Alexander.  “Who are ‘The Philosophers of the Future’?: A Reading of Beyond Good and Evil” in Reading Nietzsche, ed. Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 46-67.  JFD 89-2052

Nehamas argues that we still don’t know how to read Beyond Good and Evil.  It has often been read as a collection of brilliant, but disconnected essays and aphorisms.  For Nehamas, it must be read “as a long, sustained, sometimes rambling and disorganized, but ultimately coherent, monologue.” p. 51.

Genealogy of Morals

Ridley, Aaron.  Nietzsche’s Conscience: Six Character Studies from the Genealogy.  (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998).  JFE 99-1250

Ridley gives a series of character studies on the six personality types discussed in the Genealogy of Morals, i.e., the master, slave, priest, philosopher, artist, scientist, and the nobleman.  For Ridley, it is through these personalities that the arguments of the Genealogy are developed.

Schacht, Richard, ed.  Nietzsche, Genealogy, Morality: Essays on Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals.  (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).  JFE 00-5934

A broad range of interpretations On the Genealogy of Morals is offered in this superb collection of essays.

Nietzsche and Schopenhauer

Nietzsche was deeply influenced by Schopenhauer although he downplayed and even concealed (whether consciously or unconsciously) this influence. In Nietzsche's writings, there are more references to Schopenhauer than to any other philosopher. And since "Nietzsche often simply appropriates Schopenhauer's concepts and categories without much explanation...the reader who is unacquainted with Schopenhauer will be at a loss to understand why a certain connection was made, or how one step follows on from the previous one." 27 For example, Nietzsche's ideas of the Apollonian and the Dionysian in the Birth of Tragedy are largely based upon Schopenhauer's distinction between representation and will..

Janaway, Christopher, ed.  Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s Educator.  (Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, 1998).  JFE 99-2530

This collection of essays explores the influence of Schopenhauer on Nietzsche’s thought.

Nietzsche and Women

“You are going to women?  Do not forget the whip!”  These well-known lines from Thus Spoke Zarathustra, along with many others, have led many to dismiss Nietzsche as a misogynist and to claim, like Walter Kaufmann, that his remarks about women are irrelevant to his philosophy.  Serious study of the feminine in Nietzsche’s thought began in the 70’s, in France, with Sara Kofman’s “Baubô” and Jacques Derrida’s Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles. 

Burgard, Peter J., ed.  Nietzsche and the Feminine. (Charlottesville: University Press of Viriginia, 1994)  JfE 94-8343

This collection of essays examines Nietzsche’s deep ambivalence towards women and considers this ambivalence central to his thinking.

Oliver, Kelly and Marilyn Pearsall, eds.  Feminist Interpretations of Friedrich Nietzsche.  (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998)  JFE 98-9626

This excellent collection includes important essays by Kofman and Derrida.

Nietzsche and Religion

Although an avowed atheist, who proclaimed that “God is dead,” and who railed against the ill effects of Christianity, Nietzsche was in many ways a religious thinker, preoccupied with religious themes.  “Has it ever been really noted [observed Nietzsche] to what extent a genuinely religious life…of self-examination…requires a leisure class…I mean leisure with a good conscience…And that consequently our modern, noisy, time-consuming industriousness, proud of itself, stupidly proud, educates and prepares people more than anything else does, precisely for ‘unbelief.’” 28

Lippit, John and Jim Urpeth, eds.  Nietzsche and the Divine.  (Manchester: Clinamen Press, 2000).  JFD 02-20688

This collection of essays explores Nietzsche’s relation to Greek, Jewish, Christian, Asian, and mystic religion.

Roberts, Tyler T.  Contesting Spirit: Nietzsche, Affirmation, Religion.  (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).  JFE 99-1839

Roberts understands Nietzsche’s philosophy as a spiritual practice that uses ascetic and mystical exercises to cultivate and transfigure the self.  Nietzsche’s affirmation of this life is based on the most severe self-discipline and renunciation.  And Roberts argues that many of these practices have close affinities to those developed in the Christian tradition that Nietzsche attacked.

Santaniello, Weaver.  Nietzsche, God, and the Jews.  (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994).   *PPF 95-222

 An examination of Nietzsche’s critiques of Christianity, Judaism, and anti-Semitism. 

Yovel, Yirmiyahu.  Dark Riddle: Hegel, Nietzsche, and the Jews. (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1998). *PPX 98-1915         

The “dark riddle” is the attraction and repulsion that both Hegel and Nietzsche felt towards the Jews. Yovel argues that in Nietzsche's attitude towards Judaism "three stages are to be distinguished: Old Testament Judaism, whose ‘grandeur’ Nietzsche adored; the ‘priestly’ Judaism of the Second Temple, which he profoundly despised…as the parent of Christian culture; and the…Jews in the Diaspora…whom he…admired…” p. 117.

Nietzsche and the Classical Tradition

O’Flaherty, James, Timonthy Sellner, and Robert Helm, eds.  Studies in Nietzsche and the Classical Tradition.  (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1976).  RKA (North Carolina.  University.  Studies in the Germanic languages and literatures, no. 85)

Most of the fifteen essays are comparative studies contrasting Nietzsche’s interpretation of the classical tradition with such thinkers as Augustine, Aquinas, Goethe, Schiller, Byron, and Heine.

Bishop, Paul, ed.  Nietzsche and Antiquity: His Reaction and Response to the Classical Tradition.  ( Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2004).  JFE 04-4449

A collection of essays examining Nietzsche’s relationship to the classical tradition, primarily Greek, and a section devoted to Nietzsche and German Classicism.

Philosophy of Art

Kemal, S., Gaskell, I., and Conway, D. eds.  Nietzsche, Philosophy and the Arts.  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).  JFE 99-2407

A broad range of essays examining Nietzsche’s aesthetic understanding of philosophy. 

Schacht, Richard.  “Making Life Worth Living: Nietzsche on Art in The Birth of Tragedy” in Making Sense of Nietzsche: Reflections Timely and Untimely. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995). JFE 95-6934

Schacht argues that for Nietzsche, the task of art is to transform the horror and meaninglessness of life by spreading, in Nietzsche’s words, a “veil of beauty” over it, thereby making life worth living.

Young, Julian.  Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Art.  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)  JFE 92-3892

Young see Nietzsche’s changing views of art as a long argument against Schopenhauer’s pessimism.   Young argues that Nietzsche’s final view, that art makes life bearable, is a return to the idea of art expressed in his Birth of Tragedy, and a view that fails to overcome Schopenhauer’s pessimism.

Nietzsche and Science

Babich, Babette E.  Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Science: Reflecting Science on the Ground of Life and Art. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994)   JFE 00-6822

Babich argues that Nietzsche is a philosopher of science and that his theory of perspectivism is crucial to it.  Following Nietzsche, Babich tries to construct a philosophy of science from a philosophy of art and life.

Lampert, Lawrence.  Nietzsche and Modern Times: A Study of Bacon, Descartes and Nietzsche. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993)  JFE 93-7565

Lampert argues against the widely held view that Nietzsche is an enemy of science.  Rather it is Bacon-Cartesian science and its mechanistic view of the world that Nietzsche opposes.  Nietzsche is an advocate of a “gay science” based upon a new conception of nature.

Moore, Gregory. Nietzsche, Biology and Metaphor. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002) JFE 02-4413

Moore examines how nineteenth-century debates about evolution and the degeneration of man shaped Nietzsche’s thinking, especially his understanding of morality and art. This influence is reflected in Nietzsche’s frequent use of biological metaphors such as degeneration, decadence, sickness and health, in his cultural criticism.

Journals

International Studies in Philosophy.  (Binghamton, NY: Scholars Press, 1979-). JFL 75-260

The fall issues are devoted to papers delivered at meetings of the North American Nietzsche Society.

Journal of Nietzsche Studies.  (Norwich, U.K.: The Nietzsche Society, 1991-).  JFL 01-623

Official journal of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, published twice a year.  It is available online through Project Muse from 2002 to present.

New Nietzsche Studies: the Journal of the Nietzsche Society.  (New York, NY: The Society, 1996-).  JFK 00-74

Concentrates on publishing contemporary European scholarship on Nietzsche. 

Nietzscheforschung.  (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1994-).  JFL 95-557

Official annual journal of the Nietzsche-Gesellschaft society.

Nietzsche-Studien.  (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1972-).  JFL 73-382

A yearbook of essays and book reviews in German and English devoted to philosophical discussions of Nietzsche.  There is an index to volumes 1-20, 1972 to 1991, which lists the papers published, along with indexes of keywords and personal names.

Web Sites

The Nietzsche Channel
http://thenietzschechannel.fws1.com/
Many of Nietzsche’s texts, in both German and English, are available here.

Nietzsche Chronicle
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~fnchron/
A good source for biographical information on Nietzsche.

The Nietzsche Page at USC
http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/c/faculty/thomas/nietzsche.html
A scholarly site devoted to promoting scholarship about Nietzsche. Includes Nietzsche societies, bibliographies of Nietzsche’s writings, discussions boards, e-mail lists

-------------------

1. Friedrich Nietzsche. “Why I am Destiny,” Ecce Homo.  (New York: Vintage, 1967) 326.

2.  Martin Heidegger. The Question of Being.  (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1958)  107.

3.  Ernest Jones. The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 3 vols.  (New York: Basic Books, 1953-1957) 2: 344.

4.  Steven Taubeneck, “Nietzsche in North America: Walter Kaufmann and After,” in Confrontations:Derrida, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Ernst Behler (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1991) 159-77.

5.  Tracy Strong, “Nietzsche’s Political Misappropriation,” Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 129.

6.  Friedrich Nietzsche Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) preface, 5.

7.  Karl Jaspers, Nietzsche: An Introduction to the Understanding of His Philosophical Activity (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1965) 10.

8. Alexander Nehamas,  Nietzsche: Life as Literature. (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1985) 22.

9.  Ernst Behler, Confrontations: Derrida, Heidegger, Nietzsche.  (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press) 10.

10.  Ernst Behler, “Nietzsche in the Twentieth Century,” The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 316.

11.  Alexander Nehamas,  Nietzsche: Life As Literature (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1985) 37

12.  Karl Löwith, From Hegel to Nietzsche: The Revolution in Nineteenth Century Thought. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991) 193.

13.  Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968) 102.

14.  Linda L. Williams.  Nietzsche’s Mirror: The World as Will to Power. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001) 63.

15. Bernd Magnus.  “How the ‘True Text’ Finally Became a Fable: Nietzsche’s Weimar Literary Estate,” Nietzscheana  6 (1997): 14.

16. Martin Heidegger.  Nietzsche, trans. David Krell. (New York: Harper and   Row, 1979), 9.

17.  Linda Williams. “Will to Power in Nietzsche’s Published Works and the Nachlass”, Journal of the History of Ideas 57.3 (1996), 1.

18.  Ibid., 1.

19. Bernd Magnus and Kathleen Higgins. “Nietzsche’s Works and Their Themes,” The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 58.

20. Walter Kaufmann,  Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist.  (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980)   418.

21. Harold Bloom, “Interview” in Criticism in Society: Interviews with Jacques Derrida, Northrop Fyre, Harold Bloom, et. al./ Imre Salusinszky. (New York: Methuen, 1987) 69

22. Roderick Stackelberg, “Critique as Apologetics: Nolte’s Interpretation of Nietzsche,” Nietzsche, Godfather of Fascism? (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002) 310.

23. Nietzsche, Friedrich.  Beyond Good and Evil.  (New York: Vintage, 1966) 32.

24.  Nietzsche, Friedrich.  Beyond Good and Evil.  (New York: Vintage, 1966) 11. Klossowski, and others.

25.  Hugh Lloyd-Jones, “Nietzsche and the Study of the Ancient World,” in Studies in Nietzsche and the Classical Tradition. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1976) 1.

26.  Mazzino Montinari.  Reading Nietzsche.  (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003) 8.

27. Martha C. Nussbaum. “Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Dionysus,” in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer, ed. Christopher Janaway. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999) 345.

28. Nietzsche, Friedrich.  Beyond Good and Evil.  (Vintage: New York, 1966) 69.

Quotations

A guide to the many general and specialized quotation dictionaries in the research collections of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Dictionaries of quotations fulfill many needs: identifying a given quotation, verifying an author, providing suitable quotations for a subject area, and supplying selections from the writings of prominent persons. The research collections of The New York Public Library supply a wide assortment of general and specialized quotation dictionaries, and these sources, when properly employed, provide the researcher with an inestimable tool in researching the statements of notable people.

The research collections possess a varied collection of quotation dictionaries, and a significant number of these are available in the open stack area. The Information Desk in the Public Catalog area is able to provide the researcher with the standard reference works in this area (many of which are discussed below). In addition, the Rose Main Reading Room provides a working collection of quotation dictionaries which duplicate and supplement the holdings available in the Public Catalog area. Those who wish to browse through quotation dictionaries are particularly invited to explore the many books on this topic which are available in the Reading Room, the majority under the call numbers extending from

*R-RMRR PN6080

through

*R-RMRR PN6084.

The Rose Main Reading Room collection includes general and specialized dictionaries of quotations in the major western European languages.

Using the Catalogs

Quotation Books for Specific Individuals
Quotation Books Arranged by Language and Nationality
Quotation Books by Subject

General instructions for locating materials are given in Research Guide, How Do I Find a Book?. The following information is specific to the topic at hand.

Many of the books dealing with quotations are housed in the stacks and access to them is only through the catalogs of the Research Libraries. Materials received by the Library prior to 1972 are catalogued in the Dictionary Catalog; those received in 1972 and thereafter are catalogued in CATNYP, the online catalog. Both catalogs offer a wide selection of quotation dictionaries, but each has its own system of subject headings for this area. Please note that the vast majority of entries from the Dictionary Catalog are now accessible in CATNYP.

In the Dictionary Catalog, general anthologies of quotations are found under the subject heading Quotations, which begins on page 399 of volume 604; those collections with a specific mode of organization are located under the subject heading Quotations-Dictionaries, beginning on page 416 of volume 604.

CATNYP places general collections of quotations under the subject heading Quotations; to find these choose either the subject or keyword access on the menu, and then type in the word quotations. This command will provide a list of all quotation books, both general and subject-oriented, acquired by the Library.

Quotation Books for Specific Individuals

In CATNYP, select the keyword approach from the menu and type in the name of the individual followed by the word quotations; please employ the conjunction and between words or phrases. For example,

Albert Schweitzer and quotations

In the Dictionary Catalog, the anthologies of quotations of an individual are normally found under that person's name:
Kennedy, John F.

In some cases, however, the subheading Selections is employed. For example, a collection of Shakespeare quotations is listed under the heading

Shakespeare, William. Selections.

Quotation Books Arranged by Language and Nationality

In CATNYP, select the keyword approach and type the word Quotations followed by the name of the language or nationality desired. Once again it is necessary to use the conjunction and between words or phrases. For example,

Quotations and American
Quotations and English
Quotations and Russian.

The Dictionary Catalog arranges these works by the subject heading Quotations followed by the language or nationality desired. For example,

Quotations, American
Quotations, Latin
Quotations, Peruvian.

Quotation Books by Subject

In CATNYP, use the keyword approach and type the name of the subject desired followed by the word quotations. It is necessary to use the conjunction and between words or phrases. For example,

Chess and Quotations
Communism and Quotations
Law and Quotations
Presidents and United States and Quotations
Religion and Quotations
Sports and Quotations
Wall Street and Quotations
Railroads and Quotations

The Dictionary Catalog lists quotation books for particular subjects under the appropriate subject heading followed by the subheading Quotations, for example:

Education - Quotations
Fishing - Quotations

Some subject areas require special attention. In the Dictionary Catalog, quotation collections dealing with women are listed under Woman--Quotations. To find this material in CATNYP, use the keyword approach and type Women and Quotations. Quotation books dealing with Blacks are located in CATNYP under the keywords: Quotations and Black

Quotations and African Americans.

Anthologies of the dying words of notable persons are listed in the Dictionary Catalog under the subject heading Last Words. CATNYP employs the same term in both keyword and subject searches.

(N.B. Works on last words must be used with caution as they often disagree amongst themselves!)

General Dictionaries Of Quotations

The following titles are standard dictionaries of quotations in the English language, that is, the entries appeared originally in English or are translations into English from foreign languages. In most cases, only the call number for the latest edition is given. For other copies or earlier editions, please check CATNYP for call numbers and appropriate locations. (Please note that a quotation dictionary, exclusively in French, is included in this list.)

Bartlett, John. Familiar Quotations, 17th ed. (Boston, Mass.; London: Little, Brown, 2002). PubCat PN6081 .B27. A standard, comprehensive collection whose primary arrangement is by author (listed chronologically by birth date); indexes are by keyword and author. Earlier editions of this work (see the catalogs for appropriate call numbers) are useful for quotations omitted in the latest edition.

Benham, William G. Benham’s Book of Quotations, Proverbs, and Household Words (London: Harrap, 1948). PubCat PN6080 .B35. The English-language section of this dictionary of quotations is arranged by author. However, the special sections covering quotations in Latin, Greek, and western European languages are arranged by the first word of the quotation (translations into English provided). A section entitled "Waifs and Strays" (arranged by topics such as "Sundial Inscriptions" and "London Street Sayings") provides a listing for miscellaneous and idiosyncratic quotations. A keyword index is available for English language quotations.

Bloomsbury Dictionary of Quotations (London: Bloomsbury, 1987). *R-RMRR PN6081 .B55. This work is arranged by author; a keyword index is supplied.

Dournon, Jean-Yves. Le grand dictionnaire des citations francaises, rev. ed. (Paris: Archipel, 2002). *R-RMRR PN6086 .D68. Arranged by subject, with author index.

Ehrlich, Eugene H, ed., International Thesaurus of Quotations (New York: Harper Perennial, 1996). *R-RMRR PN6081. T77. Primarily arranged by subject, this work is also indexed by author, source, and keyword.

The Home Book of Quotations, Classical and Modern, 10th ed., selected and arranged by Burton Stevenson (New York: Greenwich House, 1984). PubCat PN6081 .H 635. This comprehensive dictionary of quotations is primarily arranged by subject; author and keyword indexes are provided.

Hoyt, J.K. Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations Drawn from the Speech and Literature of All Nations (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1927). PubCat PN6081 .H7. This comprehensive collection, arranged by subject, includes author and keyword indexes.

Mencken, Henry Louis. A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (New York: Knopf, 1987, c.1942). *R-RMRR PN6081 .M49. This comprehensive collection, notable for its inclusion of many lesser-known quotations, is arranged only by subject (with cross references to related headings). No indexes.

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation, edited by Elizabeth Knowles (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). *R-RMRR PN6080 .O945. Arranged primarily by themes or subjects, supplemented by keyword index.

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 5th ed. (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). *R-RMRR PN6080 .O95. Arranged by author, this dictionary supplies a keyword index.

Powell, David. The Wisdom of the Novel: A Dictionary of Quotations (New York: Garland, 1985). JFE 85-2457. Arranged by subject, this dictionary draws its quotations from English and American authors published between 1470 and 1900; author, novel, and keyword indexes are provided.

Stevenson, Burton E. The Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases (New York: Macmillan, 1956), 2 vols. PubCat PN6405 .S74. This comprehensive work is arranged by subject with cross references to related headings; a keyword index is provided.

Webster’s New World Dictionary of Quotations (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2005). *R-RMRR PN6080 .W43. Arranged by author, with keyword index.

Yale Book of Quotations, edited by Fred R. Shapiro (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006). *R-RMRR PN6081 .Y35. Arranged primarily by author, with keyword index. This work is notable for its special sections, which include advertising slogans, political slogans, folk songs, and radio/television catchphrases.

Bilingual and Multilingual Dictionaries

Most dictionaries of quotations are in one language only. However, there are some notable collections which provide quotations in the original language accompanied by English translations. Some of the major works in this area are listed below.

Branyon, Richard A. Latin Phrases and Quotations, rev. ed. (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1997). PubCat PA2365 .E5 B73. Arranged by first word of Latin quotation, followed by English translation.

Concise Dictionary of Foreign Quotations, edited by Anthony Lejeune. (London: Stacey London, 1998). *R-RMRR PN6080 .C57. Quotations are in Latin, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, with English translations.

Dalbiac, Lilian. Dictionary of Quotations (German) (New York: Ungar, 1958). JFE 88-1888. This dictionary, arranged alphabetically by the first word of the German quotation, provides an English translation for each quotation. Author and subject indexes provided.

Guterman, Norbert. A Book of French Quotations, with English Translations (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1963). *R-RMRR PN6086 .G85. This work is arranged chronologically by author's birth date, with English translations opposite the French text. Indexes are by author, first line of the French text, and first line of the English text.

Guterman, Norbert. A Book of Latin Quotations, with English Translations(Garden City: Anchor, 1966). C-13 4763. This is arranged chronologically by author's birth date, with English translations opposite the Latin text. Indexes are by author, subject, and keyword in Latin.

Harbottle, Thomas. Dictionary of Quotations (French and Italian) (New York: Macmillan, 1901). NAY. French quotations are in Part One, while Italian quotations are in Part Two. Each section is arranged alphabetically by first word of French or Italian quotation; English translations immediately follow. Indexes are by author and subject for each language. The 1904 edition of this work is also available under the call number NAY.

Harbottle, Thomas. Dictionary of Quotations (Spanish) (New York: Ungar, 1958). *R-RMRR PN6095 .S5 H3. This dictionary is arranged alphabetically by first word of the Spanish quotation; an English translation immediately follows. Indexes are by author and by subject (both English and Spanish).

Jones, Hugh P. Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Classical Quotations (Edinburgh: Grant, 1958). *R-RMRR PN6080 .J77d. Covering Latin, Greek, and modern western European tongues, this dictionary is arranged by language and, within that, alphabetically by first word of phrase or quotation. An English-language translation follows each entry. An author index is provided.

King, William F. Classical and Foreign Quotations (New York: Ungar, 1965). *R-RMRR PN6080 .K5. Includes classical and modern western European languages and is arranged alphabetically (without regard to language) by first word of quotation. Each quotation is followed by an English-language translation. Author and subject indexes (in English only) are included.

Ramage, Craufurd. Familiar Quotations from French and Italian Authors, with English Translations (Detroit: Gale Research, 1968). *R-RMRR PN6080 .R3; Familiar Quotations from German and Spanish Authors (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1968). *R-RMRR PN6080 .R32; and Familiar Quotations from Greek Authors, with English Translations (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1968). *R-RMRR PN6080 .R33. Each of these three volumes is arranged alphabetically by author with an English translation immediately following the foreign language quotation. Foreign language indexes (appearing in all volumes) are arranged alphabetically by first lines of quoted matter; English-language indexes (also found in all volumes) are arranged alphabetically by first word(s) of quoted material or by keyword.

Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations, compiled by Jon R. Stone (New York: Routledge, 2005). *R-RMRR PN6080 .R68. Arranged by first word of Latin quotation, followed by English translation. There is an author index and a selected English to Latin index.

Specialized Dictionaries Of Note

African American Wisdom, edited by Reginald McKnight (San Rafael, Calif., Calif.: New World Library, 1993) JFC 94-2590. Also available at the Schomburg Library.

The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women,compiled by Rosalie Maggio (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992). JFF 97-315.

Newman, Richard. African American Quotations (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1998) Copy on order for the Rose Main Reading Room; another copy is available at the Schomburg Library.

Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations, edited by Peter Kemp (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). *R-RMRR PN6081 .O89.

Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, 3rd ed., edited by Antony Jay (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). *R-RMRR PN6084 .P6 O94.

The Quotable Gardener, edited by Charles Elliott. (New York: Lyons Press, 1999). JFC 01-2053.

The Quotable Woman, from Eve to 1799 (New York: Facts on File, 1985) *R-RMRR PN 6081.5 .Q64 b1941528 and The Quotable Woman, 1800-1981 (New York: Facts on File, 1982) *R-RMRR PN6081.5 .Q6. b1793510 These companion volumes, compiled by Claudia B. Alexander, are arranged chronologically by birth date of author; indexes are by author and subject.

The Quotable Woman: The First 5,000 Years, compiled and edited by Elaine T. Partnow (New York: Facts on File, 2001). JFF 01-1459. Arranged chronologically by birth date of the author; indexes are arranged by author, occupation, nationality or ethnicity, and subject.

Quotations in Black (Westwood, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981). Available at the Schomburg Library. Compiled by Anita King, this dictionary of quotations by blacks is arranged chronologically by birth date of author. Indexes are by author and subject/keyword.

Selected Internet Sites

• Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
  http://www.bartleby.com/100/
  Search and browse 11,000 quotations from the 10th edition of Bartlett's published in 1919.
• IMDb Movie/TV Quotes Browser
  http://us.imdb.com/Sections/Quotes/
  Movie and TV quotes from the Internet Movie Database.
• Quoteland.com
  http://www.quoteland.com/
  Literary, humorous, and random quotations, plus quotations by topic.
• Simpson's Contemporary Quotations
  http://www.bartleby.com/63/
  10,000 notable quotations from 4,000 sources covering the years 1950 to 1988. Browse subject and author indexes to find quotations with full citations.

Using the Library's Online Catalog

Tips and strategies for searching the Library's online catalog.