90, edited by J. Hardin and C. Schweitzer (Detroit, 1989), pp. 128–132.

The most accessible books in German are: U. Däster, J. P. Hebel in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten (Reinbek, 1973) and R. M. Kully, Johann Peter Hebel (Stuttgart, 1969); W. Zentner, J. P. Hebel (Karlsruhe, 1965), is a fuller biography. L. Rohner, Kalendergeschichte und Kalender (Wiesbaden, 1978), places Hebel’s stories within the history of German almanacs. Ambitious readers may also wish to consult Walter Benjamin, ‘Zu J. P. Hebels 100. Geburtstag’ in Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften II (Frankfurt am Main, 1955, reprinted 1977) and Martin Heidegger, ‘Sprache und Heimat’ in ÜberJohann Peter Hebel (Tübingen, 1964 – tributes and essays by Heidegger, Theodor Heuss, Carl J. Burckhardt, Werner Bergengruen and others).

The original Hausfreund has been reproduced in facsimile as Hebel, Der Rheinische Hausfreund, Faksimiledruck der Jahrgänge 1808–15 und 1819, edited by L. Rohner (Wiesbaden, 1981). Hebel’s Schatzkästlein is available in a convenient paperback with annotations by W. Theiss (Stuttgart, 1981, later reprints). Volumes 2 and 3 of Hebel’s Sämtliche Schriften, edited by A. Braunbehrens et al (Karlsruhe, 1990) contain all his stories.

A Note on Currency

Gold doubloons and louis d’or should cause readers no problem. But they may wish to note that two silver coins, the thaler and the gulden (rendered as guilder), were in use in Baden and other German states in Hebel’s time. They may be thought of as British crowns and halfcrowns, though they were worth rather less and varied in value according to where they were minted. Hebel sometimes called thalers silver crowns, and used the abbreviation fl (florin) for gulden. There were sixty kreuzers to a gulden. The name kreuzer has usually been retained in the translation, but for coins representing fractions or multiples of the kreuzer it sometimes seemed more natural to speak of pennies and farthings. Hebel himself assisted his German readers by occasionally switching from a foreign currency, e.g.