The Goethe Yearbook, first published in 1982, is the flagship publication of the Goethe Societyand is dedicated to North American Goethe scholarship.
The Yearbook aims above all to encourage and publish original English-language contributions to the understanding of Goethe and other authors of the Goethezeit, while also welcoming contributions from scholars around the world. The book review section seeks likewise to evaluate a wide selection of recent publications on the period, and should be of interest to all scholars of eighteenth-century literature.
Originally conceived as a vehicle for Goethe criticism in English during the Cold War political tensions, when the most prestigious Goethe publication, the Goethe-Jahrbuch, was not available to most Western scholars, the Yearbook subsequently gained the respect of the international community under the editorship of Thomas P. Saine. Under his successors, Simon Richter and Daniel Purdy, the Yearbook went to an annual publication schedule.
