Nietzsche: A Selected Annotated Bibliography

Biographies

Andreas-Salomé, Lou.  Nietzsche. (Redding Ridge, CT: Black Swan Books, 1988)      JFD 88-9117

Written in 1894, by this Russian-born woman of letters, to whom Nietzsche had proposed marriage through a third party.  Salome ties Nietzsche’s philosophy to his illnesses and concludes that Nietzsche’s madness was the result of his philosophical views.

Binion, Rudolf.  Frau Lou: Nietzsche’s Wayward Disciple. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968).  E-13 5168

A fine study of Nietzsche’s relationship with Lou Salomé.

Gilman, Sander L., ed. Conversations With Nietzsche: a Life in the Words of His Contemporaries. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) JFE 87-6031

Accounts of conversations, anecdotes, and recollections of Nietzsche, by people who knew him personally.

Hollingdale, R.J.  Nietzsche: The Man and His Philosophy, rev. ed. (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999).  JFE 00-1342

Considered by many to be the best biography of Nietzsche in English.  Hollingdale’s understanding of Nietzsche’s thought is strongly influenced by Walter Kaufmann (see below). 

Hollinrake, Roger.  Nietzsche, Wagner, and the Philosophy of Pessimism. (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982).  JFD 83-179

A good account of Nietzsche's involvement with Wagner's music and ideas.  Concentrating on Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, Hollinrake argues that it was Nietzsche’s reply to Wagner.

Janz, C.P.  Friedrich Nietzsche: Biographie, rev. ed. (Munchen: C. Hanser, 1993) 3 v. JFD 94-7021

 The definitive biography in German.

Safranski, Rudiger.  Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, trans. Shelley Frisch. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2002).    JFE 02-20934

In this major new biography, Safranski, who has written excellent biographies on Schopenhauer and Heidegger, traces the background and development of Nietzsche’s thought.  Details of his life are provided only in so far as they illuminate his thought.