Thomas Common (1850–1919) completed the first authorized translations into English of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and two other titles before Oscar Levy’s “Complete Works” project began. He was also a contributor to one of our favorite egoist journals The Eagle and The Serpent (1898). Common published at regular intervals during the years 1903 to 1909 ten numbers of a small periodical entitled variously Notes for Good Europeans and The Good European Point of View. The journal, though dedicated to Nietzsche studies, also discussed Ragnar Redbeard, Shakespeare, G.B. Shaw and other topics.
Benjamin R. Tucker made note of the journal in his own Liberty (1881) in the September 1904 issue (Vol.XIV, No.23):
Mr. Thomas Common, who is well known as the translator of some of Nietzsche’s works into English, is publishing a small quarterly magazine devoted to Nietzsche and some other people and things. The title of the publication is “Notes for Good Europeans,” of which the following translation is given in parenthesis:
“The Good European Point of View.” The contents of the magazine are both good and bad—depending on the “ point of view.” The subjects range from a sober discussion of Shakespeare and quotations from Bernard Shaw and others to an unmeasured laudation of the rantings of Ragnar Redbeard. Any one who wishes to taste of its mélange may secure it for 3½. a copy or one shilling a year by addressing Mr. Common at 8 Whitehouse Terrace, Corstorphine, Edinburgh, Scotland.
The journal is incredibly rare, and we are slowly accumulating and documenting information here.
Prospectus
Its motto is from Nietzsche, “In a word — and it shall be an honorable word — we are Good Europeans …. the heirs of thousands of years of the European spirit.” Its purpose is expressed in its first number as follows : “Our general purpose is to spread the best and most important knowledge relating to human well-being among those who are worthy to receive it, with a view to reducing the knowledge to practice, after some degree of unanimity has been attained. . . As Nietzsche’s works, notwithstanding some limitations, exaggerations and minor errors, embody the foremost philosophical thought of the age, it will be one of our special objects to introduce these works to English readers.”
Masthead
subtitles: The Good European Point of View
Editors: Thomas Common
Subjects: Nietzsche and related topics.
Index of Issues
Notes for Good Europeans | No. 1 | Autumn 1903
Subtitle: The Good European Point of View
edited by: Thomas Common
| The New Outlook | 1 |
| Our Purpose | 12 |
| Nietzsche Bibliography | 14 |
| Bernard Shaw’s “Man And Superman” | 19 |
| Nietzsche For English Readers | 26 |
| Short Notes | 31 |
Notes for Good Europeans | No. 2 | Winter 1903-4
Subtitle: The Good European Point of View
edited by: Thomas Common
| The Use And Abuse Of Religion | 33 |
| Defects Of Popular Secularism | 41 |
| What To Think Of Shakespeare? | 53 |
| Nietzsche For English Readers | 62 |
| Short Notes | 63 |
Notes for Good Europeans | No. 3 | Spring 1904
Subtitle: The Good European Point of View
edited by: Thomas Common
| The Classification Of Words | 65 |
| New Religious Formulae | 78 |
| What To Think Of Shakespeare? | 84 |
| Short Notes | 95 |
Notes for Good Europeans | No. 4 | Summer 1904
Subtitle: The Good European Point of View
edited by: Thomas Common
| The Classification Of Ideas | 97 |
| New Religious Formulae-II. | 106 |
| The Functions Of Philosophers | 111 |
| Egoism–Its Error And Truth | 117 |
| Short Notes | 123 |
The Good European Point of View | No. 5 | Spring 1906
Subtitle: [none]
Issued by: Thomas Common
| Zarathustra’s Prologue | 1 |
| Zarathustra’s Discourses | 12 |
| ” ” The Three Metamorphoses | 12 |
| ” ” The Academic Chairs of Virtue | 14 |
| ” ” Backworldsmen | 16 |
| ” ” The Despisers of the Body | 18 |
| ” ” Joys and Passions | 20 |
| ” ” The Pale Criminal | 21 |
| ” ” Reading and Writing | 23 |
| ” ” The Tree on the Hill | 24 |
| Pragmatism and Kant | 27 |
| Esperantists and Nietzsche | 28 |
| Philosophical Anarchism and Typography | 29 |
| Short Notes | 30 |
The Good European Point of View | No. 9 | Spring 1908
Subtitle [unknown]
Issued by: Thomas Common
| Nietzsche’s Zarathustra Part III | 1 |
| ” ” The Wanderer | 1 |
| ” ” The Vision and the Enigma | 3 |
| ” ” Involuntary Bliss | 7 |
| ” ” Before Sunrise | 10 |
| ” ” The Bedwarfing Virtue | 12 |
| ” ” On the Olive-Mount | 17 |
| ” ” On Passing By | 19 |
| ” ” The Apostates | 21 |
| ” ” The Return Home | 25 |
| ” ” The Three Evil Things | 27 |
| Nietzschean and Other Literature | 31 |
| Short Notes | 32 |
| Yyyyy | 117 |
| Xxxxx | 123 |
The Good European Point of View | No. 10 | Summer 1909
Subtitle: [none]
Issued by: Thomas Common
| Nietzsche’s Zarathustra Part III (continued) | 33 |
| ” ” The Spirit of Heaviness | 33 |
| ” ” The Old and New Table | 36 |
| ” ” The Convalescent | 50 |
| ” ” The Great Longing | 55 |
| ” ” The Second Dance Song | 57 |
| ” ” The Seven Seals | 60 |
| Nietzschean Literature | 62 |
| Short Notes | 64 |
The Good European Point of View | No. 11 | Easter 1914
Subtitle: [unknown]
Issued by: Thomas Common
| Reintroductory Notes | 65 |
| Who is the Good Man? | 69 |
| International Language | 75 |
| The Pons Asinorum of Morals | 77 |
| Nietzschean Business Blundering | 83 |
| Good and Bad Christianity | 87 |
| The Need of New Law Courts | 89 |
| Reincarnation of a Walrus | 93 |
| Short Notes | 93 |
The Good European Point of View | No. 12 | Winter 1915
Subtitle: A Philosophical Quarterly
Issued by: Thomas Common
| Word-Classifications: Solving the Problem | 97 |
| Uprightness or Unscrupulousness | 109 |
| The Question of the Jews | 119 |
| Thoughts About the War | 122 |
| Short Notes | 126 |