Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: References & Edit History

Siegfried Seifert, Lessing-Bibliographie (1973), a comprehensive bibliography; Sämmtliche Schriften, ed. by his brother C.G. Lessing, J.J. Eschenburg, and C.F. Nicolai, 31 vol. (1771–1825), the first volumes of which were published during Lessing’s lifetime; Gotthold Ephraim Lessings sämmtliche Schriften, ed. by Karl Lachmann, 3rd ed. by Franz Muncker, 23 vol. (1886–1924, reissued 1968), a standard and complete historical-critical edition; Lessings Werke, ed. by Julius Peterson and Waldemar Von Olshausen, 25 vol. (1925), likewise a complete edition. Erich Schmidt, Lessing: Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften, 4th ed., 2 vol. (1923), a complete biography written in the positivistic method; Theodor W. Danzel and G.E. Guhrauer, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: sein Leben und seine Werke, 2nd ed. rev. by W. Von Maltzahn and R. Boxberger, 2 vol. (1880–81), a basic work, complementary to Schmidt; Ilse Graham, Goethe and Lessing (1973), seeks the sources of their inspiration; Henry B. Garland, Lessing: The Founder of Modern German Literature, 2nd ed. (1962), compressed and to the point; Paul Rilla, Lessing und sein Zeitalter (1960; reissued 1977), the first total presentation from a Marxist viewpoint; Karl S. Guthke, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 3rd ed. (1979), an important study; Francis J. Lamport, Lessing and the Drama (1981), a study of the tension between the modern content and the classical form of his drama.