Karl F. May novels have an avid following in and outside of Germany
The novelist Karl F. May belongs to the best selling German authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was given birth to on 02/25/1842 and died on March 30, 1912. Exceeding 200 million copies of Karl Friedrich May’s works have been vended worldwide. The most popular characters of Karl F. May’s works are Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. Winnetou is the clever chief of the Apache Indians, and Old Shatterhand is his white friend.
Between 1912 and 1968 there were turned out 23 movies following Karl Friedrich May’s volumes. The American actor Lex Barker became very famous for playing the role of Old Shatterhand. Another important Karl May character is Old Shurehand. The British actor Stewart Granger acted as the character of Old Shurehand in 3 films. The films were very successful, although partially only improperly reflecting the original Karl F. May volumes.
The Karl Friedrich May stories have been translated into over thirty-five languages and have been published in a lot of countries. They are well-known even in countries like Indonesia and the Czech Republic. More than 80 stories are included in the German Karl May collection, all of which could be bought at the following web book store: http://astore.amazon.de/karl-may-buecher-21.
Novels 1 to 9 have been published to the German public under the following titles:
- Buch 1: Durch die Wueste
- Buch 2: Durchs wilde Kurdistan
- Buch 3: Von Bagdad nach Stambul
- Buch 4: In den Schluchten des Balkan
- Buch 5: Durch das Land der Skipetaren
- Buch 6: Der Schut
- Buch 7: Winnetou I
- Buch 8: Winnetou II
- Buch 9: Winnetou III
Karl Friedrich May wrote the first 3 Winnetou books and the 3 Old Shurehand volumes in the 1890s. They are set in the so-called Wild West of North America. Surptising is the certainty that Karl F. May’s first visit to North America happened not before the year 1908. This travel took him to the Niagra Falls, Buffalo and Albany, but not farther west. So his popular stories came from imagination, creativity and factual sources like maps, travel accounts and guide books, as well as linguistic publications.