NIETZSCHE FRIEDRICH: (1844-1900)

NIETZSCHE FRIEDRICH: (1844-1900) German philosopher. An extremely rare, early A.L.S., Fritz Nietzsche, one page, 8vo, n.p. (Naumburg), n.d. (August 1857), to Wilhem Pinder, in German. The twelve-year-old Nietzsche writes a warm, social letter to his school friend, expressing his desire to see him again so that they can continue on their path of wisdom and knowledge, and informs Pinder of the progress at the Domgymnasium in Naumburg, in part, ´Denn wie lange sind wir schon getrennt und haben uns nicht gesehen! Wie ich gehort habe, befindest du dich mit deiner lieben Mamma recht wohl. Es wird dir gewiss sehr dort gefallen und oft wunschte ich, bei dir zu sein. Ich freue mich schon darauf, wenn du mir alles recht genau erzahlen wirst. Ich habe jetzt auch wieder einige Zeit lang allein gelebt wahrend die Mamma mit Elisabeth sich in Eilenburg aufhielt. Da habe ich oftmals an dich gedacht und dich sehr entbehrt. Deine Arbeiten habe ich an Hr Dr Silber abgeben. Er lobte desshalb dich vor der ganzen Klasse sehr. Die mundliche Privatarbeit ist bis jetzt noch nicht darangekommen, auch den Hannibal haben wir nicht abgeben mussen. Den Dion habe ich nun vollendet und fange den Chabrias an. Im Alcibiades sind wir bis zu den 7ten Cap[itel] gekommen. Uberhaupt haben wir jetzt immer genug zu thun, und ich kann keine Zeit auf unsre Plane verwenden. Du wirst dich gewiss auch lieber im freien aufhalten. Komm nur recht gesund wieder zuruck, dann wollen wir uns viel erzahlen, jetzt aber wollen wir recht an einander gedenken und uns lieb behalten´ (Translation: ´For how long we have been separated and have not seen each other! I have heard that you are quite well with your dear mother. You will certainly like it there very much and I have often wished to be with you. I'm already looking forward to you telling me everything in detail. I have now lived alone again for some time while mother and Elisabeth were in Eilenburg. I often thought of you there and missed you very much. I gave your work to Dr Silber. He praised you highly in front of the whole class. The oral private work has not yet been handed in, nor have we had to hand in the Hannibal. I have now finished the Dion and am starting on the Chabrias. In Alcibiades we have got as far as the 7th chapter. We always have enough to do now, and I can't spend any time on our plans. You will certainly prefer to stay out in the open. Just come back safe and sound, then we will have a lot to tell each other, but for now let us remember each other and keep each other dear´). In a postscript, signed a second time, Fr. Wilhem Nietzsche, the young Nietzsche conveys his mother´s warmest wishes to Pinder and their mother, and remarks ´Ich freue mich herzlich Ihrer Ruckkehr´ (Translation: ´I am very much looking forward to your return´). With autograph address panel to the verso and with the two parts of the small paper seal intact. Autographs of Nietzsche are extremely rare in any form, and the present letter represents a fine example from the formative years of his education which would augur well for the future life of this exceptional philosopher. A couple of very small, minimal neat splits at the edges, strengthened with contemporary clear tape to the verso, and not visible to the recto. VG Nietzsche´s father, a Lutheran pastor, had died in July 1849 when Friedrich was just four years old and tragedy would strike the family again only six months later, in January 1850, when Friedrich´s younger brother, Ludwig Joseph, died at age two. Following these losses Nietzsche and his family moved to Naumburg in 1849, from where the present letter was written. The two most important female figures in Nietzsche´s early life, his mother and sister, Elisabeth, are both mentioned in the letter. Nietzsche attended a boys´ school and a private school, where he was to meet Wilhelm Pinder, who would become one of his closest friends. In 1854 Nietzsche enrolled in the Domgymnasium where he developed a keen interest in literature and philosophy, graduating in 1864. Nietzsche and Pinder´s friendship grew out of their shared passion for literature and poetry. They wrote three plays together, and Nietzsche dedicated a poem to Pinder, while in 1860, together with Gustav Krug (Pinder's cousin), they founded a literary and musical society called Germania. Nietzsche makes reference to Carl Silber, his teacher at the Domgymnasium, whom he admired dearly and who introduced him to Latin and Greek. The ancient stories mentioned here as school reading, about Hannibal, Dion, Chabrias and Alcibiades, can perhaps be found in Xenophon's Hellenics, or, more likely, in Cornelius's Lives of the Great Captains. The present letter is chronologically the fifteenth in the vast Nietzschean correspondence published by Gallimard.