The Nietzsche Canon (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 635 ics); on the other hand it must account for the structure of specifically linguistic signs (a linguistics). In separating these two issues, Surber claims, Fichte both opens the door for and anticipates the developments of modern linguistics. Finally, Fichte's account of language is perhaps most unusual in the role it assigns to writing. Whereas his contemporaries had treated speech as the primary form of language and had viewed writing as merely a derivative form, Fichte explicitly rejects this view, and insists that written signs must be treated as having a fundamental place in the emergence of audible language. Surber clearly enjoys pointing out the extent to which this feature of Fichte's account disrupts post-structuralist preconceptions both about German Idealism and about the history of philosophical accounts of language. All in all, Surber is to be commended for producing an interesting and valuable study. The volume provides not only Surber's monograph but an excellent translation both of Fichte's essay and of a number of documents (by Fichte and others) which trace its origins in Fichte's lectures on Platner's Aphorismsand its reception in the pages of the PhilosophischesJournal. If there is complaint to be made it can only concern Surber's title. The book does not, as its title suggests, seek to draw any general conclusions about "Language and German Idealism"; nor does it--as its subtitle may suggest--argue for a construal of the Wissenschaftslehre as a "Linguistic Philosophy." But this is a minor quibble about an informative and provocative study. WAYNE M. MARTIN University of California, San Diego William H. Schaberg. The Nietzsche Canon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Pp. xvi + ~81. Cloth, $36.5o. This book offers a detailed account of the genesis and production of all of Nietzsche's published works, including not only the now-famous twenty-one books that constitute what he referred to as "my literature," but also philological writings, privately printed pamphlets, poems, musical compositions, and even letters to the editor. Every text that Nietzsche himself prepared for the printer is discussed, including those that he was unable to see through the final stages of publication. The controversial publication history of Nietzsche's Nachlass is not discussed. A brief account of the business of printing and distributing books in late nineteenth-century Germany is followed by a chronological account of each of Nietzsche 's publications, beginning with his 1867 essay "Zur Geschichte der Theognideischen Spruchsammlung" and ending with his preparation of the printer's copies of Nietzsche contra Wagner, Der Antichrist, and Ecce Homo. In each case Schaberg describes the circumstances under which each text was written and the precise date when each was sent to the publisher, printed, and made publicly available. He also provides a full account of Nietzsche's negotiations with his publishers over every facet of the production and distribution process, as well as information about how many copies of each work were printed (usually one thousand), how many free copies were distributed, how many were actually sold (always discouragingly few), and at what price. Finally, Nietzsche 's reaction to the reception (or lack of it) of each of his works is also recorded. 636 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 35:4 OCTOBER 1997 Though previous efforts have been made to compile a publication history of Nietzsche 's works, this volume supersedes them all in its accuracy, in its completeness, and in the impeccability of its scholarship. The complex material is well-organized and clearly presented in an extraordinarily convenient format. But what, one might ask, does such a thoroughly "Alexandrian" production have to do with the history of philosophy, and what contribution can such information make to one's understanding of Nietzsche's thought? It is obvious that this volume will be invaluable to future biographers of Nietzsche, whose fate was clearly inseparable from that of his publications. What Schaberg provides is in fact nothing less than (to use his own, well-chosen term) a "bibliobiography" of Nietzsche. The human portrait that emerges from this volume is poignant and moving, as one observes Nietzsche's growing frustration and sorrow over the failure of his carefully crafted "fish...