The book sets out to draw on the evidence about the creative approaches of authors documented in their manuscripts as a source for achieving a better understanding of those authors. The core thesis is that in the 18th century Klopstock, Hamann and Herder were instances of a focus shift in the creative process away from the work itself and toward the author, and that since then writing has been imbued with an ambivalence between author-centered and work-centered approaches. In author-centered writing, literature and language are freed of external purposes and serve the inner renewal of the author and the like-minded reader. Philological editing has long been dominated by the work-centered approach and has only recently accommodated author-related aspects, notably in the text-genesis approach.

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) is one of the most important figures in the history of German literature. He is seen as paving the way for the age of sentimentalism, Sturm und Drang, and the literature of experience. Klopstock was an ingenious linguistic innovator, and he established a body of work of lasting significance with his epic "The Messiah", and with his odes, dramas and poetic writings. With his wide network of connections with Enlightenment poets and thinkers, he was a focus of the intellectual world of his age. The Hamburg Klopstock Edition is the first complete critical edition of Klopstock's works and letters. It contains complete versions of all of the texts available in both printed and manuscript form and presents them in their historical contexts. Much of this material was previously unknown or unpublished and has been neglected in Klopstock research. The comprehensiveness of the material and the editorial methods employed make the Hamburg Edition a firm foundation for research into Klopstock and his age. The edition is divided into three sections, "Works," "Letters," and "Addenda." The "Works" section contains both the complete texts and critical, historical analyses of all of the literary and theoretical texts that Klopstock wrote and revised. The section not only includes previously unpublished works from the "Gelehrtenrepublik" (Republic of Scholars) and the "Grammatische Gesprache" (Grammatical Conversations) along with Klopstock's translations of Classical works but also demonstrates the breadth of variation within the works themselves which is typical of Klopstock's constant striving for perfection in the content and linguistic form of a text.

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) is one of the most important figures in the history of German literature. He is seen as paving the way for the age of sentimentalism, Sturm und Drang, and the literature of experience. Klopstock was an ingenious linguistic innovator, and he established a body of work of lasting significance with his epic "The Messiah", and with his odes, dramas and poetic writings. With his wide network of connections with Enlightenment poets and thinkers, he was a focus of the intellectual world of his age. The Hamburg Klopstock Edition is the first complete critical edition of Klopstock's works and letters. It contains complete versions of all of the texts available in both printed and manuscript form and presents them in their historical contexts. Much of this material was previously unknown or unpublished and has been neglected in Klopstock research. The comprehensiveness of the material and the editorial methods employed make the Hamburg Edition a firm foundation for research into Klopstock and his age. The edition is divided into three sections, "Works," "Letters," and "Addenda." The "Works" section contains both the complete texts and critical, historical analyses of all of the literary and theoretical texts that Klopstock wrote and revised. The section not only includes previously unpublished works from the "Gelehrtenrepublik" (Republic of Scholars) and the "Grammatische Gesprache" (Grammatical Conversations) along with Klopstock's translations of Classical works but also demonstrates the breadth of variation within the works themselves which is typical of Klopstock's constant striving for perfection in the content and linguistic form of a text.

Der Apparat enthalt Mitteilungen zur Biographie der Korrespondenzpartner, insbesondere im Hinblick auf ihre Beziehungen zu Klopstock, Auskunfte zu allen in der Korrespondenz erwahnten Personen, Werken und Ereignissen, Sach- und Worterklarungen, Zitatnachweise sowie Verweisungen auf Zusammenhange innerhalb des Briefwechsels. Der bereits erschienene Text-Band enthalt 212 Briefe, von denen mehr als zwei Drittel hier zum ersten Mal gedruckt erscheinen. Im Mittelpunkt des Briefwechsels steht zunachst die Trauer um Klopstocks 1758 verstorbene Frau Meta. In der Korrespondenz mit Gleim und Ebert geht es u.a. um Klopstocks biblische Dramen "Salomo" und "David" sowie um seine Erfindungen neuer deutscher Versmasse. Andreas Peter Bernstorff, der - wie auch Gessner, Gerstenberg, Asseburg, Lavater und Denis - neu in den Kreis der Briefpartner tritt, ist 1762/63 neben Gleim Klopstocks Vertrauter in der Zeit seiner Liebe zu Sidonie Diederich

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) is one of the most important figures in the history of German literature. He is seen as paving the way for the age of sentimentalism, Sturm und Drang, and the literature of experience. Klopstock was an ingenious linguistic innovator, and he established a body of work of lasting significance with his epic "The Messiah", and with his odes, dramas and poetic writings. With his wide network of connections with Enlightenment poets and thinkers, he was a focus of the intellectual world of his age. The Hamburg Klopstock Edition is the first complete critical edition of Klopstock's works and letters. It contains complete versions of all of the texts available in both printed and manuscript form and presents them in their historical contexts. Much of this material was previously unknown or unpublished and has been neglected in Klopstock research. The comprehensiveness of the material and the editorial methods employed make the Hamburg Edition a firm foundation for research into Klopstock and his age. The edition is divided into three sections, "Works," "Letters," and "Addenda." The "Works" section contains both the complete texts and critical, historical analyses of all of the literary and theoretical texts that Klopstock wrote and revised. The section not only includes previously unpublished works from the "Gelehrtenrepublik" (Republic of Scholars) and the "Grammatische Gesprache" (Grammatical Conversations) along with Klopstock's translations of Classical works but also demonstrates the breadth of variation within the works themselves which is typical of Klopstock's constant striving for perfection in the content and linguistic form of a text.

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) is one of the most important figures in the history of German literature. He is seen as paving the way for the age of sentimentalism, Sturm und Drang, and the literature of experience. Klopstock was an ingenious linguistic innovator, and he established a body of work of lasting significance with his epic "The Messiah", and with his odes, dramas and poetic writings. With his wide network of connections with Enlightenment poets and thinkers, he was a focus of the intellectual world of his age. The Hamburg Klopstock Edition is the first complete critical edition of Klopstock's works and letters. It contains complete versions of all of the texts available in both printed and manuscript form and presents them in their historical contexts. Much of this material was previously unknown or unpublished and has been neglected in Klopstock research. The comprehensiveness of the material and the editorial methods employed make the Hamburg Edition a firm foundation for research into Klopstock and his age. The edition is divided into three sections, "Works," "Letters," and "Addenda." The "Works" section contains both the complete texts and critical, historical analyses of all of the literary and theoretical texts that Klopstock wrote and revised. The section not only includes previously unpublished works from the "Gelehrtenrepublik" (Republic of Scholars) and the "Grammatische Gesprache" (Grammatical Conversations) along with Klopstock's translations of Classical works but also demonstrates the breadth of variation within the works themselves which is typical of Klopstock's constant striving for perfection in the content and linguistic form of a text.