The editors have been fortunate in associating with themselves a
notable number of distinguished contributors from many universities
and colleges in this country and abroad. A general introduction to the
whole series has been written by Professor Richard M. Meyer of the
University of Berlin. The last two volumes will be in charge of
Professor Julius Petersen of the University of Basel. The
introductions to Goethe and Schiller have been prepared by Professor
Calvin Thomas, of Columbia University; that to the Romantic
Philosophers by Professor Frank Thilly, of Cornell University; that to
Richard Wagner by Professor W. R. Spalding, of Harvard University.
And, similarly, every important author in this collection will be
introduced by some authoritative and well known specialist.

The crux of the whole undertaking lies in the correctness and adequacy
of the translations. How difficult, if not impossible, a really
satisfactory translation is, especially in lyric poetry, no one
realizes more clearly than the editors. Their only comfort is that
they have succeeded in obtaining the assistance of many well trained
and thoroughly equipped scholars, among them such names of poets as
Hermann Hagedorn, Percy MacKaye, George Sylvester Viereck, and
Martin Schütze.

Kuno Francke.


PUBLISHERS' FOREWORD

The German Classics is the first work issued by The German Publication
Society in pursuance of a comprehensive plan to open to the
English-speaking people of the world the treasures of German thought