The novelist Karl F. May is one of the best selling German writers of the twentieth century. He saw the light of day on February 25, 1842 and deceased on 03/30/1912. At least two hundred million copies of Karl F. May’s volumes have been vended around the globe. The best-known figures of Karl Friedrich May’s books are Old Shatterhand and Winnetou. Winnetou is the wise leader of the Apache Tribe, and Old Shatterhand is his white friend.
From 1912 to 1968 there were turned out exceeding 21 films following Karl F. May’s volumes. The American actor Lex Barker became very famous for acting as the character of Old Shatterhand. Another well-known Karl May figure is Old Shurehand. The British performer Stewart Granger played the role of Old Shurehand in three films. Those movies were very successful, although some of them only loosely reflecting the original Karl May volumes.
The Karl May works have been translated into at least thirty languages and have been published in a lot of countries. They are successful even in countries like Indonesia and the Czech Republic. At least eighty-seven novels are included in the German Karl May collection, all of which should be found at the following online book store: Karl May Buecher Shop.
Stories 1 – 9 have been publicized to German readers under these headers:
- Gesammelte Werke 1: Durch die Wueste
- Gesammelte Werke 2: Durchs wilde Kurdistan
- Gesammelte Werke 3: Von Bagdad nach Stambul
- Gesammelte Werke 4: In den Schluchten des Balkan
- Gesammelte Werke 5: Durch das Land der Skipetaren
- Gesammelte Werke 6: Der Schut
- Gesammelte Werke 7: Winnetou I
- Gesammelte Werke 8: Winnetou II
- Gesammelte Werke 9: Winnetou III
Karl May wrote the the 3 Old Shurehand volumes and the first 3 Winnetou novels between 1893 and 1897. They are set in the famous Wild West of North America. Funny is the fact that Karl May’s first voyage to North America occured in 1908. This visit took him to Buffalo, the Niagara Falls and Albany, but not farther to the West. Thus his popular novels came from creativity, imagination and factual sources such as maps, guide books and travel accounts, as well as anthropological publications.
