Notes For Good Europeans (1903)

Thomas Common (1850–1919) completed the first authorized translations into English of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and two other titles before Oscar Levy’s “Complete Works” project began. He was also a contributor to one of our favorite egoist journals The Eagle and The Serpent (1898). Common published at regular intervals during the years 1903 to 1909 ten numbers of a small periodical entitled variously Notes for Good Europeans and The Good European Point of View. The journal, though dedicated to Nietzsche studies, also discussed Ragnar Redbeard, Shakespeare, G.B. Shaw and other topics.

Benjamin R. Tucker made note of the journal in his own Liberty (1881) in the September 1904 issue (Vol.XIV, No.23):

Mr. Thomas Common, who is well known as the translator of some of Nietzsche’s works into English, is publishing a small quarterly magazine devoted to Nietzsche and some other people and things. The title of the publication is “Notes for Good Europeans,” of which the following translation is given in parenthesis:
“The Good European Point of View.” The contents of the magazine are both good and bad—depending on the “ point of view.” The subjects range from a sober discussion of Shakespeare and quotations from Bernard Shaw and others to an unmeasured laudation of the rantings of Ragnar Redbeard. Any one who wishes to taste of its mélange may secure it for 3½. a copy or one shilling a year by addressing Mr. Common at 8 Whitehouse Terrace, Corstorphine, Edinburgh, Scotland.

The journal is incredibly rare, and we are slowly accumulating and documenting information here.

Prospectus

Its motto is from Nietzsche, “In a word — and it shall be an honorable word — we are Good Europeans …. the heirs of thousands of years of the European spirit.” Its purpose is expressed in its first number as follows : “Our general purpose is to spread the best and most important knowledge relating to human well-being among those who are worthy to receive it, with a view to reducing the knowledge to practice, after some degree of unanimity has been attained. . . As Nietzsche’s works, notwithstanding some limitations, exaggerations and minor errors, embody the foremost philosophical thought of the age, it will be one of our special objects to introduce these works to English readers.”

Masthead

subtitles: The Good European Point of View
Editors: Thomas Common
Subjects: Nietzsche and related topics.


Index of Issues

Notes for Good Europeans | No. 1 | Autumn 1903
Subtitle: The Good European Point of View
edited by: Thomas Common

The New Outlook 1
Our Purpose 12
Nietzsche Bibliography 14
Bernard Shaw’s “Man And Superman” 19
Nietzsche For English Readers 26
Short Notes 31

Notes for Good Europeans | No. 2 | Winter 1903-4
Subtitle: The Good European Point of View
edited by: Thomas Common

The Use And Abuse Of Religion 33
Defects Of Popular Secularism 41
What To Think Of Shakespeare? 53
Nietzsche For English Readers 62
Short Notes 63

Notes for Good Europeans | No. 3 | Spring 1904
Subtitle: The Good European Point of View
edited by: Thomas Common

The Classification Of Words 65
New Religious Formulae 78
What To Think Of Shakespeare? 84
Short Notes 95

Notes for Good Europeans | No. 4 | Summer 1904
Subtitle: The Good European Point of View
edited by: Thomas Common

The Classification Of Ideas 97
New Religious Formulae-II. 106
The Functions Of Philosophers 111
Egoism–Its Error And Truth 117
Short Notes 123

The Good European Point of View | No. 5 | Spring 1906
Subtitle: [none] Issued by: Thomas Common

Zarathustra’s Prologue 1
Zarathustra’s Discourses 12
” ” The Three Metamorphoses 12
” ” The Academic Chairs of Virtue 14
” ” Backworldsmen 16
” ” The Despisers of the Body 18
” ” Joys and Passions 20
” ” The Pale Criminal 21
” ” Reading and Writing 23
” ” The Tree on the Hill 24
Pragmatism and Kant 27
Esperantists and Nietzsche 28
Philosophical Anarchism and Typography 29
Short Notes 30

 


The Good European Point of View | No. 9 | Spring 1908
Subtitle [unknown] Issued by: Thomas Common

Nietzsche’s Zarathustra Part III 1
” ” The Wanderer 1
” ” The Vision and the Enigma 3
” ” Involuntary Bliss 7
” ” Before Sunrise 10
” ” The Bedwarfing Virtue 12
” ” On the Olive-Mount 17
” ” On Passing By 19
” ” The Apostates 21
” ” The Return Home 25
” ” The Three Evil Things 27
Nietzschean and Other Literature 31
Short Notes 32
Yyyyy 117
Xxxxx 123

 


The Good European Point of View | No. 10 | Summer 1909
Subtitle: [none] Issued by: Thomas Common

Nietzsche’s Zarathustra Part III (continued) 33
” ” The Spirit of Heaviness 33
” ” The Old and New Table 36
” ” The Convalescent 50
” ” The Great Longing 55
” ” The Second Dance Song 57
” ” The Seven Seals 60
Nietzschean Literature 62
Short Notes 64

The Good European Point of View | No. 11 | Easter 1914
Subtitle: [unknown] Issued by: Thomas Common

Reintroductory Notes 65
Who is the Good Man? 69
International Language 75
The Pons Asinorum of Morals 77
Nietzschean Business Blundering 83
Good and Bad Christianity 87
The Need of New Law Courts 89
Reincarnation of a Walrus 93
Short Notes 93

 


The Good European Point of View | No. 12 | Winter 1915
Subtitle: A Philosophical Quarterly
Issued by: Thomas Common

Word-Classifications: Solving the Problem 97
Uprightness or Unscrupulousness 109
The Question of the Jews 119
Thoughts About the War 122
Short Notes 126