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Anton in America: A Novel from German-American Life has been described as the best German-language book published in the United States. Written by Reinhold Solger, a gifted German revolutionary intellectual who emigrated to America, this witty novel sheds light on topics of perennial importance: a hero's development through encounters with different social worlds, immigrant identity formation in a new land, and the country and the city. Solger took German ideas and values and adapted them to an American context, thus producing a literary work that could comment upon German, American, and German-American life, making Anton in America an important source for understanding the rich linguistic and cultural history of the United States. This lively translation makes a great book available to English-speaking readers for the first time.
About the author
The Translator: Lorie A. Vanchena is Assistant Professor of German at Creighton University in Nebraska. She received her Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures from Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of
Political Poetry in Periodicals and the Shaping of German National Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century (Peter Lang, 2000) and has published articles on nineteenth-century German and German-American literature.
Report
"It is a pleasure to read Lorie A. Vanchena's sprightly and congenial translation of Reinhold Solger's 'Anton in America' (1862), which begins as a good-natured spoof of Gustav Freytag's earnest, somewhat stuffy best seller 'Debit and Credit' (1855) and continues with a tolerantly comic tale about American justice and capitalist anarchy, wearing its prejudices so lightly and cheerfully that they do not offend, and constantly parodying the conventions of popular literature. Professor Vanchena's meticulous commentary supplies the most thorough source of information on Solger we have yet had, and clarifies his many allusions and literary tags." (Jeffrey L. Sammons, Leavenworth Professor of German Emeritus, Yale University)
"This is a mordantly humorous take on mid-nineteenth-century America, framed as a continuation of Gustav Freytag's baleful 'Debit and Credit'. It could be read as a scathing indictment of American business and society if it weren't so much fun to read. Rarely has a good history lesson been so diverting." (Steven Rowan, Professor of History, University of Missouri-St. Louis)
