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Nietzsche's Influence on FPG in Munich & on the Prairies

This article explores the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche on Frederick Philip Grove (FPG) during his time in Munich and on the Canadian Prairies. It discusses FPG's first Canadian publication, his essays inspired by Nietzsche, and his German and English poems reflecting Nietzschean themes.

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Nietzsche's Influence on FPG in Munich & on the Prairies

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  1. FPG F R E D E R I C K P H I L I P G R O V E Felix Paul Greve

  2. Frederick Philip Grove’s“Rousseau als Erzieher” (1914): Nietzsche’s influence onFPGin Munich & on the Prairies by Gaby Divayfor the 2008 LCMND Conferencein Winnipeg (hosted by the UM)

  3. Grove’s First Canadian Publication • Frederick Philip Grove’s first Canadian publication was the essay “Rousseau als Erzieher” • It was published in four parts from Nov.-Dec. 1914 in the German-Canadian newspaper Der Nordwesten • “Fred Grove”, a teacher in Winkler, was the author LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  4. “Fred Grove” was Felix Paul Greve • Fred Grove was born Felix Paul Greve in 1879 • He had spent a year in Bonn prison for fraud in 1903/4 • He left Berlin in late July 1909 with a faked suicide [after double-selling his Swift translation] • He spent three years in the United States before settling in Manitoba as Grove in 1912 LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  5. Grove’s “Rousseau als Erzieher” • Margaret Stobie found the “Rousseau” essay while preparing her 1973 book on Grove in the “Twayne World Authors series” • Also in 1973, D. O. Spettigue published his discovery that Grove had been Greve in his FPG: the European Years LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  6. Greve’s First Publication, 1901 • Like Stobie’s, Spettigue’s research papers are part of the UM Archives’ FPG Collections • Among his many documents by or about Greve is a 1901 review of Nietzsche’s Posthumous Works, v. XI +XII, in a Munich newspaper • This is FPG’s first known publication LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  7. FPG’s First Publications, 1901 & 1914 • Neither FPG scholar was aware of the other’s Nietzsche link to Greve & Grove • And neither one pursued the interesting implications of their own respective finding LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  8. Grove’s Canadian Essays • The title of Grove’s rambling “Rousseau als Erzieher” is a clear reference to Nietzsche’s 3rd Untimely Meditation (1874) • ITS title was “Schopenhauer als Erzieher” (Sch. as Educator) • Grove wrote several more essays with titles like “Rebels All”, “Civilization”, “Of Science”, & “Of History” LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  9. Grove’s Canadian Essays • All imitate the loud cultural criticism of Nietzsche’s Meditations in form & content • They were edited in Henry Makow’s unpublished Ph.D. thesis in 1982 • Makow dates them to ca. 1919 • That is four years after “Rousseau” & three years before Grove’s first book of nature essays Over Prairie Trails in 1922 • He fails to appreciate the Nietzsche echoes resounding in them LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  10. Greve’s German Essays on Oscar Wilde • Grove’s essays resemble Greve’s on Oscar Wilde & decadence • A major source of inspiration for these was Nietzsche's Geburt der Tragödie • Axel Knönagel nicely shows how GREVE’s outlook changed before and after his prison term in 1903 • in his published Thesis, Nietzschean Philosophy in the works of FPG, 1990 • He does, however, not link his astute observations to GROVE’s Nietzsche-inspired texts • The “Rousseau” text & Makow’s essays in the UM Archives were apparently unknown to him LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  11. Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy

  12. Grove’s Canadian Aphorisms • Among other Grove manuscripts reflecting Nietzsche’s influence stand foremost sixty confessional aphorisms entitled “The Life of Saint Nishivara” • The title alone identifies them as the Zarathustra (1883ff) imitation they are • They were published in 1987 in A stranger to my time: Essays by and about FPG LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  13. Grove’s Canadian Aphorisms • The editor, Paul Hjartarson, does NOT see the obvious Nietzsche parallels • Nietzsche was famous for his aphoristic style inspired by moralists like Montaigne • “Saint Nishivara” is, like Zarathustra, written in aphorisms • Hjartarson also misses the biographical pointers FPG couched in his text • We shall later return to this fragment LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  14. St. Nishivara Aphorisms

  15. Grove’s Six German Poems • Many of Grove’s poems also have Nietzschean overtones • His six German ones emphasize the “special” individual (FPG), unfettered by ordinary rules • “Kopfschmerz”, “Das Fieber…”, and “Apokalypse” are typical for applied “Jenseits von Gut & Böse / Beyond Good & Evil” (1886) ethics LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  16. Grove’s English Poems • Grove’s English poem “Ahasuerus” exploits the motif of Greve’s 1902 poetry title Wanderungen. • His long “Legends” continue the narrative vein of “Irrfahrt” & “Sage” in Greve's 1902 collection • Both draw on Nietzsche’s “Der Wanderer & sein Schatten” (1880) LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  17. Grove’s English Poems • The epic fragment “Konrad the Builder” exploits Goethe's Faust motif • It joins Nietzsche's Promethean theme which FPG also uses on more than one occasion • Nietzsche was fond of Goethe in general & Faust in particular • He also championed Flaubert who became FPG's post-prison model in 1904 LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  18. Nietzsche CONCEPTS in both FPGs • Some Nietzschean key concepts found in both FPGs' poetry & prose are: • Heraclitean CHANGE being the nature of all things • (Nietzsche, like FPG, was a Classicist educated at Bonn University. His Thesis was on the Skeptic Diogenes Laertius) • This view fosters RELATIVITY & propagates SKEPTICISM • Skepticism dominates neo-Kantians like Vaihinger (Philosophy of AS-IF) & Dilthey • Relativity is evident in physicists likeEinstein, Mach, Schrodinger, Planck, & Heisenberg LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  19. Nietzsche CONCEPTS in both FPGs • DECADENCE • Nietzsche saw his times in sad decline, especially, when compared to Antiquity • ETERNAL RETURN • This belief attributed to Heraclitus fosters a cyclical world-view, & also dominates artistic form: poetry cycles (Stefan George) & musical ones (Richard Wagner) • LIFE … • has priority over Art, the noblest art being the Art of Living • Greve reverses O. Wilde’s Art/Life poles in prison in favour of Life • THE TRAGIC (in Geburt der Tragödie) • Nietzsche’s views of rivaling “Dionysian” & “Apollonian” forces are embraced by many, incl. FPG, & Thomas Mann (who sees them at work in Grove's Two Generations in 1939) LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  20. Nietzsche TOPICS in both FPGs • Some of Nietzsche’s pet topics commonly found in both FPGs poetry & prose are: • The “GENIUS” being above the law • Faust & Prometheus are typical figures • MASKS & LYING as approved tools of dissimulation • These themes are prominent in O. Wilde • Dual SLAVE & MASTER standards • An elitist CONTEMPT for the “Herd” or the Masses" LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  21. Nietzsche TOPICS in both FPGs • A pronounced distrust of PROGRESS, • especially, if technology-based • A COSMOPOLITAN outlook fostering tolerance • (goes together with Skepticism) • A belief that WOMEN snare the Genius • … and keep him from realizing his mission LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  22. Nietzsche’s pervasive Influence • Nietzsche was the foremost philosopher of DECADENCE and LIFE (Lebensphilosophie) • His impact on FPG’s entire generation cannot be over-estimated • Recently, FPG’s debt to him has come into sharp focus • A volume of sixty early manuscript poems by Greve was discovered & acquired by the UMA in March 2008 LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  23. Facsimile eEd. of Jahr der Wende

  24. Greve’s Jahr der Wende, 1901

  25. Greve’s First Poetry Book, Nov. 1901 • Completed in Nov. 1901, Das Jahr der Wende opens with four poems about Nietzsche • In Greve’s Wanderungen (23 poems, Feb. 1902), Nietzsche, the painter Böcklin, the poet Stefan George, and Beethoven are hailed as “Masters” – in this order! • Only Böcklin & Nietzsche then have an entire poem devoted to them LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  26. Contents of Jahr der Wende

  27. "Vision", Jahr der Wende

  28. Friedrich Nietzsche, 1899

  29. Greve’s First Poetry Book, Nov. 1901 • It is interesting that Das Jahr der Wende reflects the unstructured style of Nietzsche's "Dionysos Dithyramben" • They concluded the Zarathustra complex in 1888, just before Nietzsche suffered the mental breakdown that ended his career • In contrast, Greve’s Wanderungen show the mark of the so-called Stefan George-Mache, a formally rigid way of crafting poetry LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  30. Nietzsche's Dionysos Dithyramben

  31. Grove’s indirect Nietzsche-Hints • Greve wrote FIVE poems about Nietzsche • In comparison, ALL of Grove's Nietzsche pointers are covert & indirect • We saw his sly title reference to Nietzsche in the 1914 "Rousseau" essay • Das Jahr der Wende / Year of the Turning Point also echoes a title: • Grove chose The Turn of the Year (1923) for his 2nd Canadian book • He thus pointed to the poems he had written in Jahr der Wende two decades earlier LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  32. Grove’s confessional Aphorisms • Back to Grove's “Saint Nishivara” aphorisms: they are a confession in the disguise of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra • Theycan be datedinternally to 1939: • 30 years the hero spent “in the East”, another 30 “in the West” • Both times he became entangled in sin … • Greve left Berlin when he was 30 in 1909, & at 60 he mused about his life in 1939 LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  33. Grove’s Aphorisms, 1939 • 1939 marks a period of intense Soul-Searching for Grove • Around his birthday in mid-February 1939, he sends two of his books to Thomas Mann at Princeton • He revises & expands his “Author’s Note” for the 1939 ed. of ASA with explicit references to Goethe's Dichtung & Wahrheit/Fact & Fiction • Gide’s autobiography & fame provides the impetus to start is autobiography ISM LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  34. Nietzsche's Thus spake Zarathustra

  35. More Traces of Nietzsche in FPG's Poetry • While preparing the 2007 e-Edition of FPG’s complete poetry, two of Greve’s poems in Wanderungen warranted a link to Nietzsche • One was to the moving “Die Sonne sinkt”, the other to “Aus hohen Bergen” • Both the day/life & the mountain metaphors were used repeatedly in Grove's poetry LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  36. Nietzsche in Grove’s Autobiography • Two years before his death, in In Search of Myself (1946), Grove acknowledged his great admiration for Nietzsche • He insists that he preferred the "early" Nietzsche • And he obscures the fact that he made lavish use of Nietzsche’s late & most literary Zarathustra LCMND, Sept 2008 gd

  37. UMA FPG (Greve/Grove) & FrL Website

  38. eEd. of Grove's In Search of Myself(1946)

  39. Grove on Nietzsche in ISM(p.166)

  40. Wikipedia: Nietzsche

  41. Stanford Encyclopedia: Nietzsche

  42. Wikipedia: Nietzsches Werke

  43. Stanford Encycl: Nietzsche's Works

  44. Nietzsche's Ecce Homo

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