Editing Friedrich Nietzsche (section)

=== Independent philosopher (1879–1888) ===
{{anchor|independent philosopher|philosopher}}
[[File:Nietzsche paul-ree lou-von-salome188.jpg|thumb|[[Lou Andreas-Salomé|Lou Salomé]], [[Paul Rée]] and Nietzsche posing for a studio photo during their trip through Italy in 1882, planning to establish an educational commune together, but the friendship disintegrated in late 1882 due to complications from Rée's and Nietzsche's mutual romantic interest in Salomé.]]

Living on his pension from Basel along with aid from friends, Nietzsche travelled frequently to find climates more conducive to his health. He lived until 1889 as an independent author in different cities. He spent many summers in [[Sils Maria]] near [[St. Moritz]] in Switzerland, and many of his winters in the Italian cities of [[Genoa]], [[Rapallo]], and [[Turin]], and the French city of [[Nice]]. In 1881, when [[French conquest of Tunisia|France occupied Tunisia]], he planned to travel to [[Tunis]] to view Europe from the outside but later abandoned that idea, probably for health reasons.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Güntzel |first=Stephan |date=2003 |title=Nietzsche's Geophilosophy |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/45353/pdf |format=PDF |journal=[[The Journal of Nietzsche Studies|Journal of Nietzsche Studies]] |volume=25 |pages=78–91 (85) |doi=10.1353/nie.2003.0010 |s2cid=201784626 |via=[[Project MUSE]]}}</ref> Nietzsche occasionally returned to Naumburg to visit his family, and, especially during this time, he and his sister, Elisabeth, had repeated periods of conflict and reconciliation.

While in [[Genoa]], Nietzsche's failing eyesight prompted him to explore the use of [[typewriter]]s as a means of continuing to write. He is known to have tried using the [[Hansen Writing Ball#Sale and popular use|Hansen Writing Ball]], a contemporary typewriter device. In the end, a past pupil of his, [[Heinrich Köselitz|Peter Gast]], became a private secretary to Nietzsche. In 1876, Gast transcribed the crabbed, nearly illegible handwriting of Nietzsche's first time with Richard Wagner in Bayreuth.{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=221}} He subsequently transcribed and proofread the galleys for almost all of Nietzsche's work. On at least one occasion, on 23 February 1880, the usually poor Gast received 200 marks from their mutual friend, Paul Rée.{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=297}} Gast was one of the very few friends Nietzsche allowed to criticise him. In responding most enthusiastically to ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra|Also Sprach Zarathustra]]'' ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra"), Gast did feel it necessary to point out that what were described as "superfluous" people were in fact quite necessary. He went on to list the number of people [[Epicurus]], for example, had to rely on to supply his simple diet of goat cheese.{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=415}}

To the end of his life, Gast and Overbeck remained consistently faithful friends. [[Malwida von Meysenbug]] remained like a motherly patron even outside the Wagner circle. Soon Nietzsche made contact with the music-critic Carl Fuchs. Nietzsche stood at the beginning of his most productive period. Beginning with ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'' in 1878, Nietzsche published one book or major section of a book each year until 1888, his last year of writing; that year, he completed five.

In 1882, Nietzsche published the first part of ''[[The Gay Science]]''. That year he also met [[Lou Andreas-Salomé]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lou von Salomé |url=http://www.f-nietzsche.de/lou_e.htm |website=f-nietzsche.de}}</ref> through Malwida von Meysenbug and [[Paul Rée]].

Salomé's mother took her to Rome when Salomé was 21. At a literary salon in the city, Salomé became acquainted with [[Paul Rée]]. Rée proposed marriage to her, but she, instead, proposed that they should live and study together as "brother and sister", along with another man for company, where they would establish an academic commune.{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=149}} Rée accepted the idea and suggested that they be joined by his friend Nietzsche. The two met Nietzsche in Rome in April 1882, and Nietzsche is believed to have instantly fallen in love with Salomé, as Rée had done. Nietzsche asked Rée to propose marriage to Salomé, which she rejected. She had been interested in Nietzsche as a friend, but not as a husband.{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=149}} Nietzsche nonetheless was content to join with Rée and Salomé touring through Switzerland and Italy together, planning their commune. The three travelled with Salomé's mother through Italy and considered where they would set up their "Winterplan" commune. They intended to set up their commune in an abandoned monastery, but no suitable location was found. On 13 May, in Lucerne, when Nietzsche was alone with Salomé, he earnestly proposed marriage to her again, which she rejected. He nonetheless was happy to continue with the plans for an academic commune.{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=149}} After discovering the relationship, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became determined to get Nietzsche away from the "immoral woman".{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=151}} Nietzsche and Salomé spent the summer together in [[Tautenburg]] in Thuringia, often with Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth as a chaperone. Salomé reports that he asked her to marry him on three separate occasions and that she refused, though the reliability of her reports of events is questionable.{{Sfn |Kaufmann |1974 |p=49}} Arriving in [[Leipzig]] (Germany) in October, Salomé and Rée separated from Nietzsche after a falling-out between Nietzsche and Salomé, in which Salomé believed that Nietzsche was desperately in love with her.

While the three spent a number of weeks together in Leipzig in October 1882, the following month Rée and Salomé left Nietzsche, leaving for Stibbe (modern-day [[Zdbowo]] in Poland)<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Killy |first1=Walther |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkoK_108xJkC&q=Stibbe+Zdbowo+Nietzsche&pg=PT223 |title=Plett – Schmidseder |last2=Vierhaus |first2=Rudolf |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-3-11-096630-5 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> without any plans to meet again. Nietzsche soon fell into a period of mental anguish, although he continued to write to Rée, stating "We shall see one another from time to time, won't we?"{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=152}} In later recriminations, Nietzsche would blame on separate occasions the failure in his attempts to woo Salomé on Salomé, Rée, and on the intrigues of his sister (who had written letters to the families of Salomé and Rée to disrupt the plans for the commune). Nietzsche wrote of the affair in 1883, that he now felt "genuine hatred for my sister".{{sfn|Hollingdale|1999|p=152}}

Amidst renewed bouts of illness, living in near-isolation after a falling out with his mother and sister regarding Salomé, Nietzsche fled to Rapallo, where he wrote the first part of ''Also Sprach Zarathustra'' in only ten days.
[[File:Nietzsche1882.jpg|thumb|Photo of Nietzsche by [[Gustav-Adolf Schultze]], 1882]]

By 1882, Nietzsche was taking huge doses of [[opium]] and continued to have trouble sleeping.{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=389}} In 1883, while staying in Nice, he was writing out his own prescriptions for the sedative [[chloral hydrate]], signing them "Dr. Nietzsche".{{Sfn |Cate |2005 |p=453}}

He turned away from the influence of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], and after he severed his social ties with Wagner, Nietzsche had few remaining friends. Now, with the new style of ''Zarathustra'', his work became even more alienating, and the market received it only to the degree required by politeness. Nietzsche recognised this and maintained his solitude, though he often complained. His books remained largely unsold. In 1885, he printed only 40 copies of the fourth part of ''Zarathustra'' and distributed a fraction of them among close friends, including [[Helene von Druskowitz]].

In 1883, he tried and failed to obtain a lecturing post at the [[University of Leipzig]]. According to a letter he wrote to Peter Gast, this was due to his "attitude towards Christianity and the concept of God".<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. [26 August 1883] 1921. "[[s: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche#Nietzsche To Peter Gast – August 1883 2|Letter to Peter Gast]]." ''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'', translated by [[Anthony Ludovici|A. M. Ludovici]].</ref>

In 1886, Nietzsche broke with his publisher Ernst Schmeitzner, disgusted by his antisemitic opinions. Nietzsche saw his own writings as "completely buried and in this anti-Semitic dump" of Schmeitzner—associating the publisher with a movement that should be "utterly rejected with cold contempt by every sensible mind".<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 February 2000 |title=Ernst Schmeitzner (1851–1895). 115 letters 1874–1886 {{!}} Correspondences |url=http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/correspondence/corresp.htm#schmei |access-date=27 November 2013 |website=The Nietzsche Channel}}</ref> He then printed ''[[Beyond Good and Evil]]'' at his own expense. He also acquired the publication rights for his earlier works and over the next year issued second editions of ''The Birth of Tragedy'', ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'', ''[[The Dawn of Day|Daybreak]]'', and of ''[[The Gay Science]]'' with new prefaces placing the body of his work in a more coherent perspective. Thereafter, he saw his work as completed for a time and hoped that soon a readership would develop. In fact, interest in Nietzsche's thought did increase at this time, if rather slowly and imperceptibly to him. During these years Nietzsche met [[Meta von Salis]], [[Carl Spitteler]], and [[Gottfried Keller]].

In 1886, his sister, Elisabeth, married the antisemite [[Bernhard Förster]] and travelled to Paraguay to found [[Nueva Germania]], a "Germanic" colony.<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elisabeth-Forster-Nietzsche Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]." ''[[Britannica.com]]''. [1998] 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2020.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=van Eerten |first=Jurriaan |date=27 February 2016 |title=The lost 'Aryan utopia' of Nueva Germania |url=https://ticotimes.net/2016/02/27/the-lost-aryan-utopia-of-nueva-germania |access-date=29 September 2019 |website=The Tico Times |location=Costa Rica}}</ref> Through correspondence, Nietzsche's relationship with Elisabeth continued through cycles of conflict and reconciliation, but they met again only after his collapse. He continued to have frequent and painful attacks of illness, which made prolonged work impossible.

In 1887, Nietzsche wrote the polemic ''[[On the Genealogy of Morality]]''. During the same year, he encountered the work of [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], to whom he felt an immediate kinship.<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. [March 1887] 1921. "[[s: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche#Nietzsche To Peter Gast – March, 1887|Letter to Peter Gast]]." ''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'', translated by [[Anthony Ludovici|A. M. Ludovici]].</ref> He also exchanged letters with [[Hippolyte Taine]] and [[Georg Brandes]]. Brandes, who had started to teach the philosophy of [[Søren Kierkegaard]] in the 1870s, wrote to Nietzsche asking him to [[Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche|read Kierkegaard]], to which Nietzsche replied that he would come to [[Copenhagen]] and read Kierkegaard with him. However, before fulfilling this promise, Nietzsche slipped too far into illness. At the beginning of 1888, Brandes delivered in Copenhagen one of the first lectures on Nietzsche's philosophy.

Although Nietzsche had previously announced at the end of ''[[On the Genealogy of Morality]]'' a new work with the title ''[[The Will to Power (manuscript)|The Will to Power]]: Attempt at a [[transvaluation of values|Revaluation of All Values]]'', he seems to have abandoned this idea and, instead, used some of the draft passages to compose ''[[Twilight of the Idols]]'' and ''[[The Antichrist (book)|The Antichrist]]'' in 1888.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Montinari |first=Mazzino |title=Friedrich Nietzsche. Eine Einführung |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter|De Gruyter]] |year=1974 |language=de}} translated as {{cite book |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |language=fr |year=1991 |location=Paris |publisher=[[Presses Universitaires de France|PUF]]}}</ref>

His health improved and he spent the summer in high spirits. In the autumn of 1888, his writings and letters began to reveal a higher estimation of his own status and "fate". He overestimated the increasing response to his writings, however, especially to the recent polemic, ''[[The Case of Wagner]]''. On his 44th birthday, after completing ''Twilight of the Idols'' and ''The Antichrist'', he decided to write the autobiography ''[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]]''. In its preface—which suggests Nietzsche was well aware of the interpretive difficulties his work would generate—he declares, "Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else."{{Sfn |Nietzsche |1888d |loc=Preface, section 1}} In December, Nietzsche began a correspondence with [[August Strindberg]] and thought that, short of an international breakthrough, he would attempt to buy back his older writings from the publisher and have them translated into other European languages. Moreover, he planned the publication of the compilation ''[[Nietzsche contra Wagner]]'' and of the poems that made up his collection ''[[Dionysian-Dithyrambs]]''.