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311

Arthur Schopenhauer

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:20,000.00 - 25,000.00 USD
Arthur Schopenhauer

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Auction Date:2010 Oct 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Important and highly influential German philosopher (1788–1860) best known for his often pessimistic works exploring the nature of reality, will, and desire. Among those who found resonance in his ideas were such diverse scientific and cultural figures as Charles Darwin, Gustav Mahler, Albert Einstein, and Dylan Thomas. Scarce ALS in German, one page both sides, 9 x 10.75, December 2, 1850. Letter to his student and admirer, Johann August Becker. In part (translated): “Many thanks for letting me know of your discovery. I appreciate the interest you have been taking in my affairs for so many years, particularly given my current public neglect. I have not yet seen the book, and I have asked the bookseller to send it to me when then get it. In the meantime I have sent your letter to [Julius] Frauenstädt and hope that this may induce him to write a review. But there is a current dearth of literary journals: when Germany runs out of those, it must have progressed deeply into barbarism, of which beards have always been the telltale sign. I thank you for your kind offer and may hold you to it. Dr. [Martin] Emden has agreed to your suggestion, after some deliberation, and has supplied me with substantive grounds for a complaint, thus greatly adding to the credit of my cause. So I presented it to the lady in question, and I expect her reply - which is uncertain, as everything to do with women, as you well know. They follow their whim in all matters and will write only when it pleases them.” In very good to fine condition, with intersecting mailing folds, one through a single letter of signature, scattered light creases and wrinkles, and show-through from writing on opposite side. The second integral page bears an address panel in Schopenhauer’s hand. Schopenhauer, who came to see Becker as the most thoroughly knowledgeable expert on his philosophy, began exchanging letters with him in 1844 and continued the mutual correspondence for years. In 1850, the same year as this letter, Becker had moved on from attorney and was named a district judge, and upon the death of Schopenhauer’s friend and attorney, Martin Emden, who is mentioned here, it was Becker to whom the philosopher turned for legal advice. Around the same time as this letter was composed, Schopenhauer was struggling to find a publisher for Parerga und Paralipomena, hence his reference to the “current public neglect.” That work was eventually published 1851. The other gentleman referenced by Schopenhauer—Christian Martin Julius Frauenstadt—was a German student of philosophy who became the writer’s literary executor, undertaking the editing of his works. Schopenhauer's metaphysical analysis of will, his views on human motivation and desire, and his aphoristic writing style influenced many well-known thinkers including Richard Wagner, who was presented this letter as a gift by Becker in 1862. This desirable correspondence was formerly in the collection of Friedrich Wilhelm Schuder, who served as administrational director of the Bayreuth Festival from 1897 to 1930.
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