But, my dear Sir, what a surprise is this!--Where have you found the courage to propose to speak in public of a _vir obscurissimus_?... Do you imagine that I am known in the beloved Fatherland? They treat me there as if I were something singular and absurd, something that for the present need not be _taken seriously_.... Evidently they have an inkling that I do not take them seriously either: and how could I, nowadays, when "German intellect" has become a _contradictio in adjecto_!--My best thanks for the photograph. Unfortunately I have none to send in return: my sister, who is married and lives in South America, took with her the last portraits I possessed. Enclosed is a little _vita_, the first I have ever written. As regards the dates of composition of the different books, they are to be found on the back of the cover of _Beyond Good and Evil_. Perhaps you no longer have this cover. _The Birth of Tragedy_ was written between the summer of 1870 and the winter of 1871 (finished at Lugano, where I was living with the family of Field-Marshal Moltke). The _Thoughts out of Season_ between 1872 and the summer of 1875 (there were to have been thirteen; luckily my health said No!). What you say about Schopenhauer as Educator gives me great pleasure. This little work serves me as a touchstone; he to whom it says nothing personal has probably nothing to do with me either. In reality it contains the whole plan according to which I have hitherto lived; it is a rigorous promise. _Human, all-too-Human_, with its two continuations, summer of 1876-1879. _The Dawn of Day_, 1880. _The Joyful Wisdom_, January 1882. _Zarathustra_, 1883-1885 (each part in about ten days. Perfect state of "inspiration." All conceived in the course of rapid walks: absolute certainty, as though each sentence were shouted to one. While writing the book, the greatest physical elasticity and sense of power). _Beyond Good and Evil_, summer of 1885 in the Upper Engadine and the following winter at Nice. _The Genealogy_ decided on, carried out and sent ready for press to the printer at Leipzig, all between July 10 and 30, 1887. (Of course there are also _philologica_ of mine, but they do not concern you and me.) I am now making an experiment with Turin; I shall stay here till June 5 and then go to the Engadine. The weather so far is wintry, harsh and unpleasant. But the town superbly calm and favourable to my instincts. The finest pavement in the world. Sincere greetings from Yours gratefully, NIETZSCHE. A pity I understand neither Danish nor Swedish.