This volume attempts for the first time a comprehensive view of the momentous process of German-American cultural transfer during the 18th and 19th centuries, which played an important part in the formation of an American national and cultural identity, a process to which the New England Transcendentalists contributed some of the decisive ingredients, but which has largely escaped the attention of German and American scholarship. In each chapter a specific problem is treated systematically from a clearly defined perspective, deficiencies of existing translation theories are exposed, so that in the concluding chapters 13 and 14 (with an unpublished memorandum by Alexander von Humboldt) a cohesive view of the entire process emerges. A comprehensive bibliography will facilitate further scholarly pursuits.

Kurt Mueller-Vollmer studied in Germany, France, Spain and the USA. He holds a Master’s degree in American Studies from Brown University, Providence (USA) and a doctorate in German Studies and Humanities from Stanford University where he taught for over 40 years. His major publications concentrate in the areas of Hermeneutics, Comparative Literature and the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt.