Max Letteris

Max Letteris, actually: Meir Halevi Letteris (. . * 1 Septemberjul / September 13 1800greg in Zolkiew, Galicia, † May 19, 1871 in Vienna) was a writing in Hebrew Jewish writer, poet, literary scholar and orientalist. In 1863 he wrote a Hebrew paraphrase of Goethe's " Faust".

Life

Letteris came from a Galician family of printers. He studied in the years 1826-1830 Philosophy and Oriental Studies at the University of Lemberg. He then went to Vienna in 1831 and took over the literary line of oriental printing of the book printer Anton Edler von Schmid.

From 1840 to 1848 Letteris lived in Prague, where he Dr. phil. received his doctorate and the Oriental court Buchdruckerei G. Haase 's headed sons. Then he went back to Vienna, where he became friends with the poet Ludwig August Frankl of Hochwart (1810-1894) and the Protestant theologian Franz Delitzsch ( 1813-1890 ). After a brief stint as a librarian in the Imperial Court Library. In 1861 Letteris opened his own printing press.

On behalf of the "British and Foreign Bible Society " ( London), he published a still used today Bible Edition. He was also the editor of the "Wiener Vierteljahrsschrift " with a Hebrew part, " ABNE Netzer " and the "Vienna month leaves for art and literature."

Since 1848 he also gave the Austrian central organ for freedom of religion, culture, history and literature of the Jews in Vienna out ( semimonthly, apologetic ).

Works

Letteris was one of the leading writers of the 1860s and 1870s. His most important works include " Dibre Shir ", original poems and translations from the year 1822, and " Ayyelet ha - Shahar " of 1824. Biggest stir in the Hebrew reading circles he attracted in 1865 with " Ben Abuja, an artistic laws and the spirit of Hebrew poetry appropriate paraphrase of Goethe 's Faust, " which sets the breakaway Mishnaic scholar Elisha ben Abuja instead of Faust. This Letteris put more on a reinterpretation into the symbolic. The work also sparked a broad debate on questions of modern Hebrew literature and translation techniques in which, among other things Letteris was attacked by Peretz Smolenskin sharp.