Norgard Kohlhagen

Bit flat. Herder seems to have been a self-centred awkward person, envious of the more charming Goethe, and largely taking his wife for granted. She did everything including persuading him to marry her, then bearing his kids, bringing them up, editing his writings, sorting out his debts, doing the housework and keeping up voluminous correspondence in a pleasant style less pompous than his. His work doesnt feature much here, except for the rather amazing fact that when she prepared the Gesamtausgabe of his writings it raised enough to clear his legacy of debt. The economics of publishing must have been very different back then; how ever many copies did they sell of his musings on language and national culture?… (mehr)