While browsing some of the collections housed at the Penn State library, I found myself pulled to the Allison-Shelley Collection of German Literature in English Translation. Though this may sound like a random choice, I was interested in German translations because I’m working with two as primary texts for my honors thesis: Goethe’s Faust and Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus. Because of this personal connection, I wanted to take a look at some of the other works in translation that we have on hand, and the collection did not disappoint. I found out that the collection houses some of Goethe’s work, as well as a very large children’s collection.
Exploring this collection at length was really quite fun, as I adore children’s books to begin with and these were particularly awesome children’s books. There were also some cool adult books, particularly Goethe, so let’s start with that. First of all, can you say original German publication of Goethe’s Faust? It was truly amazing to see one of the small, square copies of Faust as it was originally published. Next to this tiny copy is Sylvia Plath’s own copy of the English translation of Faust. Yes, that Sylvia Plath. Her own hand-written annotations are inside it. Next to this copy owned by a famous person lies a copy that is owned by a non-famous person: me. This is your standard, modern-day Norton Edition of the English-translated Faust that can be purchased by college students across the nation at this very moment. I thought it fun to show the progressions of subsequent publications of Goethe’s work. It was also fun to let my own copy share the table with such greatness in the literary tradition. Take a look at the slideshow at the bottom of this post to see photos of each text.
On to the children’s books! One thing to be said here is that there is no end to the creativity when it comes to German-translated children’s stories. Let’s start with a well-known classic: Hansel and Gretel. The illustrations in this book are beautiful and well done, but perhaps the best aspect of this edition are the pristine dolls that accompany the text and match the illustrations of Hansel and Gretel exactly. The dolls and illustrations make this copy of Hansel and Gretel unique and beautiful.
No discussion of German-translated children’s literature is complete without mentioning the Brothers Grimm. They essentially created the fairy tale genre with their written collection of German children’s stories. It is safe to say that the translation of these into English shaped children’s literature for us as well. A copy from the first English printing is in our collection, published in two editions: the first in London in 1823 under the title German Popular Stories and the second in 1909. This second publication was a limited edition with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. This copy is significant not only because it is a limited publication, but because the library actually has one of the original, hand-drawn chapter illustrations. The figure is a cute little imp-like creature.
The English-translated German pop-up books were perhaps the coolest things I have seen recently in the library. This might sound strange to you, but trust me, if you see them, you would understand. Pop-up books dating from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s are totally awesome and you must see them for yourself. There was one pop-up book from 1932 of German fairy tales (I’ve chosen a picture from “Jack the Giant-Killer” to show the pop-up style). The best pop-up book, however, is from 1891 and called Look Alive! It’s filled with short stories that are accented by moving illustrations. My personal favorite was the one of Santa, who is actually, along with the Christmas tree, a German import. The illustration of Santa coming through the door to surprise the children is simply adorable.
Comic books are another amazing German import accessible at the library. Early comics came to us via the German tales of Max and Moritz: two obnoxious children in constant trouble. Their stories, coupled with many pictures of their exploits, basically started the comic tradition. The author of Max and Moritz, Wilhelm Busch, wrote another comic-book-like tale called The Mischief Book, which we also have in our collection. Pictures and rhymes are paired together in what is clearly a comic book style. All these exciting German imports make me glad that I decided to explore the Allison-Shelley collection and even happier that I picked translated German books for my thesis. I hope you all have a chance to explore this collection at some point!