Johann Joachim Christoph Bode
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Johann Joachim Christoph Bode (January 16, 1730 – December 13, 1793) was a well-known German translator of literary works.
Life
Bode was born in Braunschweig, the son of a poor day laborer from Schöppenstedt, and went as a shepherd boy to his grandfather in Barum. From 1745 he studied music in Braunschweig, and in 1750 became an oboist in an ensemble there. He continued his music studies at the University of Helmstedt, where he also learned French and English. In 1752, he composed a number of works in Hannover, where he also began to write.
At the death of his wife in 1757, Bode went to Hamburg, where he worked as a language and music teacher, and also began to translate works from French and English to German. He worked for the Kochsche Theater, and from 1762–63 edited the Hamburgischen Korrespondenten. By a second marriage to a rich pupil (Simonette Tam), he came into the possession of a large fortune. When she died after several years, he married a third time, to the widow of a bookseller, with whom he established a printing business, and in connection with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a scholarly bookstore. This store sold its own and other works, including Lessing's Dramaturgie, Goethe's Götz, and Klopstock's Oden, but the venture soon failed, taking much of Bode's fortune with it.
In 1778 Bode moved to Weimar, where he served as chief clerk and court counselor to the countess of Bernstorff, the widow of Andreas Peter Bernstorff. He died in Weimar in 1793.
Translations
Bode's translations had a significant influence on German literature, making many notable foreign works available in German for the first time. Among his best known were:
- Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey, as Yoriks empfindsame Reise (1768)
- Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, as Tristram Shandys Leben (1774)
- Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, as Dorfprediger von Wakefield (1776)
- Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1786–88)
