The Reception of the Emerson-Nietzsche Relation
Chapter 1 investigates the reasons why the Emerson-Nietzsche relationship tended to be played down, where it was not frankly and entirely denied, for almost a century. This is not a matter of chance but rather the sign of a long-protracted political and cultural hostility between Germany and the United States, with Nietzsche and Emerson being elevated to the status of cultural icons in their respective countries. This chapter considers the reception of Emerson in Europe during Nietzsche’s lifetime and the stereotype of Emerson as an Idealist mystic, innocently optimistic and unaware of social problems that had become disseminated there. Also considered is the reception of Nietzsche in the United States and the myth of his complicity in Nazism—a myth exploded only after the publication, from the end of the 1960s on, of the Critical Edition of his works and private notes.