Otto Ferdinand Best

Otto F. Best

Otto Ferdinand Best (born July 28, 1929 - † March 4, 2008 ), author's name Otto F. Best, was a German Germanist, editor and translator.

Life

Otto F. Best studied German , Romance languages and philosophy in Frankfurt am Main , Toulouse , Dijon and Munich . He worked as an editor for the publishing houses Suhrkamp, ​​Insel, Fischer and Piper and as a translator . He translated works by Jean Giraudoux and the memoirs of Charles de Gaulle . Best taught Yiddish studies at the University of Munich for several years . In 1968 he became Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland , USA . Best has published numerous books on cultural history and literary studies.

Best became known through non-fiction books and through his work as a lecturer for Heinrich Böll , Paul Celan , Thomas Bernhard and Stefan Andres . His Reclam - series "German literature in text and Presentation" in 16 volumes and his "Handbook of Literary Terms" have become classics in the German language. During his work as a university professor in the USA , he published numerous books on literary studies . After his retirement in 1997, Otto F. Best dealt with the phenomenon of the kiss (philematology).

Publications

author

• 1971: Peter Weiss. From existentialist drama to Marxist world theater. A critical balance . Francke, Bern / Munich ISBN 377200895X
• 1972: Handbook of literary terms . Fischer, Frankfurt ISBN 3-59-626478-2
• 1978: Forbidden happiness. Kitsch and freedom in German literature . Piper, Munich Zurich
• 1980: Adventure - a dream of happiness from escape and from afar. History and interpretation . Frankfurt am Mein
• 1982: Bertolt Brecht. Wisdom and deliberation . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main
• 1988: Mame Loschen. Yiddish - a language and its literature . Insel, Frankfurt am Main
• 1998: The blue flower in the English garden: Romanticism - a misunderstanding? Fischer, Frankfurt am Main
• 1998: the kiss. A biography . With the collaboration of Wolfgang M. Schleidt . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main ISBN 3-10-005208-0
• 2001: The language of kisses. A search for clues . Koehler & Amelang, Munich ISBN 3-7338-0318-3
• 2002: The lips of sweet eros. Kiss poems . Manesse, Zurich ISBN 3-7175-4020-3
• 2003: From kissing. A sensual lexicon . Reclam, Leipzig ISBN 3-37920056-5

editor

• 1957: German poetry and prose after 1945 (S. Fischer school editions of modern authors) . S. Fischer, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main.
• 1977: German literature. An outline in text and representation . 16 volumes; together with Hans-Jürgen Schmitt. Reclam, Stuttgart.
• 1980: The grotesque in poetry . WBG , Darmstadt ISBN 3-53406187-X

Web links

• Literature by and about Otto Ferdinand Best in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Otto Ferdinand Best  in the German Digital Library