卡尔·迈

卡尔·弗里德里希·迈（德语：Karl Friedrich May；1842年2月25日（恩斯塔尔）—1912年3月30日（拉德博伊尔））是一位德国作家，以通俗小说而知名。根据联合国教科文组织的统计，他是最被广泛阅读的德文作家之一，且是被最广泛翻译的德国作家之一。他的作品的全球本估计有两亿种，单德国就有一亿种。迈的作品常常带有异域情调，场景常设定在19世纪的东方、美国和墨西哥。特别有名的是以印第安人Winnetou为主角的三部曲。他的作品有多部被改编为电影、舞台剧、广播剧和漫画。

青年时代

卡尔·迈出身于一个非常贫穷的织工家庭。他在十四个兄弟姐妹中第五个出生的，其中有九个孩子在刚出生的那个月就夭折了。卡尔·迈自己的书中写道，当他还是个孩子的时候曾经失明，在五岁的时候在卡尔·弗里德里希·哈泽的治疗下痊愈。孩提时代早期的失明，除了迈自己的说法之外，没有任何证据能够表明，之后关于卡尔·迈的研究通过不同的原因来解释这件事情，只有部分说得通，这件事的真实情况依然是让人充满怀疑。

影响

后来成为纳粹德国领导人的希特勒曾在《我的奋斗》中提及在青年时期曾读过卡尔·迈的作品，并为之着迷。

Karl Friedrich May ( MY, German: [kaʁl ˈmaɪ] ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author known for travel writing. His works, often in first-person narratives about travels and adventures, were mostly set in the American Old West or the Orient and Middle East, but also in Latin America, China and within Germany. For a time he insisted that he actually had travelled to the West and was called Old Shatterhand there, while in the Ottoman Empire he was called Kara Ben Nemsi, and posed in costumes.

May is one of the best-selling German writers of all time, with about 200 million copies sold worldwide. A series of Karl May film adaptations was successful in the 1960s.

Early life

May was the fifth child of a poor family of weavers in Ernstthal, Schönburgische Rezessherrschaften (then part of the Kingdom of Saxony). He had 13 siblings, of whom nine died in infancy. His parents were Heinrich August May and Wilhelmine Christiane Weise. During his school years, he received instruction in music and composition. At age twelve, May was making money at a skittle alley, where he was exposed to rough language.

Delinquency

In 1856, May commenced teacher training in Waldenburg, but in 1859 was expelled for stealing six candles. After an appeal, he was allowed to continue in Plauen. Shortly after graduation, when his roommate accused him of stealing a watch, May was jailed in Chemnitz for six weeks and his license to teach was revoked. After this, May worked with little success as a private tutor, an author of tales, a composer and a public speaker. For four years, from 1865 to 1869, May was jailed in the workhouse at Osterstein Castle, Zwickau. With good behaviour, May became an administrator of the prison library, which gave him the chance to read widely. He made a list of the works he planned to write (Repertorium C. May.)

On his release, May continued his life of crime, impersonating various characters (policemen, doctors etc.) and spinning fantastic tales as a method of fraud. He was arrested, but when he was transported to a crime scene during a judicial investigation, he escaped and fled to Bohemia, where he was detained for vagrancy. For another four years, from 1870 to 1874, May was jailed in Waldheim, Saxony. There he met a Catholic Catechist, Johannes Kochta, who assisted May.

Career

After his release in May 1874, May returned to his parents' home in Ernstthal and began to write. In November 1874, Die Rose von Ernstthal ("The Rose from Ernstthal") was published. May then became an editor in the publishing house of Heinrich Gotthold Münchmeyer in Dresden, where he managed entertainment papers such as Schacht und Hütte ("Mine and Mill") and continued to publish his own works such as Geographische Predigten ("Collected Travel Stories") (1876). May resigned in 1876 and was employed by Bruno Radelli of Dresden.

In 1878, May became a freelance writer. Once again, May was insolvent. In 1882, May returned to the employ of Münchmeyer and began the first of five large colportage novels. One of these was Das Waldröschen (1882–1884). From 1879, May was also published in Deutscher Hausschatz ("German House Treasure"), a Catholic weekly journal from the press of Friedrich Pustet in Regensburg. In 1880, May began the Orient Cycle, which ran, with interruption, until 1888.

May was also published in the teenage boys' journal Der Gute Kamerad ("The Good Comrade") of Wilhelm Spemann, Stuttgart. In 1887, it published Der Sohn des Bärenjägers ("Son of the Bear Hunter"). In 1891 Der Schatz im Silbersee ("The Treasure of Silver Lake") was published. May published in other journals using pseudonyms. In all, he published over one hundred articles. In October 1888, May moved to Kötzschenbroda (a part of Radebeul) and in 1891 to Villa Agnes in Oberlößnitz. In 1891, Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld offered to print the Deutscher Hausschatz "Son of the Bear Hunter" stories as books.