Viereck George Sylvester
George Sylvester Viereck ( born December 31, 1884 in Munich, died March 18, 1962) was a German-American poet, writer, and propagandist. George Viereck was born in Germany, to a German father and American-born mother. His father Louis, born out of wedlock to German actress Edwina Viereck, was reputed to be a son of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Another relative of the Hohenzollern family assumed legal paternity of the boy. In the 1870s Louis Viereck joined the Marxist socialist movement. In 1896 Viereck emigrated to the United States. His American-born wife Laura and 12-year-old son George Sylvester followed in 1897. In 1904 while still in college, George Sylvester Viereck, with the help of literary critic Ludwig Lewisohn published his first collection of poems. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1906. The next year his collection Nineveh and Other Poems (1907) won Viereck national fame. A number were written in the style of the Uranian male love poetry of the time.[1] In the 1920s, Viereck became close friends with Nikola Tesla. According to Tesla, Viereck was the greatest contemporary American poet. Tesla occasionally attended dinner parties held by Viereck and his wife. He dedicated his poem "Fragments of Olympian Gossip" to Viereck, a work in which Tesla ridiculed the scientific establishment of the day. Between 1907 and 1912, Viereck turned into a Germanophile. In 1908 he published the best-selling Confessions of a Barbarian. He lectured at the University of Berlin on American poetry in 1911. Notably, he conducted an interview with Adolf Hitler in 1923 which offered hints of what was to come. He founded two publications, The International and The Fatherland, which argued the German cause during World War I. Viereck became a well-known Nazi apologist. In 1941, he was indicted in the US for a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act when he set up his publishing house, Flanders Hall.[2] He was imprisoned from 1942 to 1947. Viereck's memoir of life in prison, Men into Beasts, was published as a paperback original by Fawcett Publications in 1952. The book is a general memoir of discomfort, loss of dignity, and brutality in prison life. The front matter and backcover text focuses on the situational homosexuality and male rape described in the book (witnessed, not experienced, by Viereck). The book, while a memoir, is thus the first original title of 1950s gay pulp fiction, an emerging genre in that decade. Viereck also published one of the first known gay vampire novels The House of the Vampire (1907). Not only is this one of the first known gay vampire stories, but it is also one of the first psychic vampire stories -- where a vampire feeds off more than just blood. George Sylvester is the father of Peter Viereck, a historian, political writer and poet. A 2005 The New Yorker article discusses how the younger Viereck both rejected and was shaped by the ideologies of his father.[3]
The House of the Vampire
- Author: Viereck George Sylvester
- Genre: Horror
A vampire story by George Sylvester Viereck, a German-American poet, writer, and propagandist. Published in 1907, this odd tale of horror touches upon the bisexuality of vampires. A very popular work in its time, the book was later adapted to the stage. An early classic in the genre, dark and mysterious.
nineveh and other poems
- Author: Viereck George Sylvester
- Genre: History
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office.
the candle and the flame
- Author: Viereck George Sylvester
- Genre: History
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
confessions of a barbarian
- Author: Viereck George Sylvester
- Genre: Books
Originally published in 1910. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
a game at love and other plays
- Author: Viereck George Sylvester
- Genre: Puzzles & Games
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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