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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 December 2021
Seldom do readers of Gerstäcker's Germelshausen, Irrfahrten, Wild-Dieb, etc., know how this author first appealed to, and won, his worldwide clientèle of the last eighty-odd years. I hope soon to present a truly adequate account of his life, letters and works; here I will but most briefly sketch his early life, depict his picturesque attempts to become a real American citizen, and indicate finally the truly dominant influence of this, his first American sojourn, over all his later career.
1 Possibly inexact for “Kaufmann”; young Gerstäcker's position here made him feel bitterly a degradation, a hopeless inferiority to his erstwhile companions and friends.
2 Tagebuch, II, 64.
3 Tagebuch, II, für den 10. Februar, 1838.
4 lbid.
5 Tagebuch, III, 1.
6 S. u. J. (1844), II, 142.
7 S. u. J. (Costenoble, 1901), 439.
8 HS, in der Darmstaetter-Sammlung, Berliner Staatsbibliothek, von Gerstäcker unterzeichnet und datiert: “Plagwitz bei Leipzig, d. 4ten Septbr. 1852.”
9 Gortenlaube, 1869; 47; 754.
