Werner Herzog was born in Munich on September 5, 1942.
He made his first film in 1961 at the age of nineteen. Since then
he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature and
documentary films, including
Aguirre, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Little Dieter
Needs to Fly, My Best Fiend, Grizzly Man, Encounters
at the End of the World, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
Herzog has published more than a dozen books of poetry and
prose, most recently The Twilight World, and directed as many
operas. He has appeared as an actor in Jack Reacher, The
Mandalorian, and The Simpsons, and exhibited an art installation,
Hearsay of the Soul, at the 2012 Whitney Biennale and the Getty
Museum. He also founded his own Rogue Film School as a counterpoint
to what is taught in most film schools around the world. He lives
in Munich and Los Angeles.
Michael Hofmann is a German-born poet who writes in English.
He has translated the works of Bertolt Brecht, Franz Kafka, Hans
Fallada, and Joseph Roth, and teaches at the University of Florida
in Gainesville.
“Stepping outside a conventional human identity to achieve an
ecstatic vision is the ruling passion that runs through this
astonishing book. Translated by Michael Hofmann, Herzog’s memoir
invites comparison with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s, published in 1782,
four years after the author’s death—though it is a better written
and markedly more enigmatic text than Rousseau’s scandalously
revealing Confessions . . . Regaling stories that sometimes seem
beyond credibility, Herzog does not claim to be offering a literal
rendition of the events of his life . . . His memoir should be read
for what it is: a visionary masterpiece that speaks, as did the
ancient Greek daimon, of the world of mortals and the regions that
seem to lie beyond.” —John Gray, The New Statesman
“The book is nonlinear and exuberantly free-associative, less a
narrative than an extravagant demonstration of sensibility . . .
Like so many of his films, his memoir is not at home in its
ostensible genre. A very thin thread of autobiography runs through
an otherwise vibrant tapestry of anecdotes and adventures . . . His
melancholic, meditative and theatrically nostalgic way of being is
as irrepressible in his writing as it is in his films . . . I feel
the same sense of awe when I contemplate the phenomenon of Werner
Herzog as I do when I contemplate the pyramids. Amazing, that this
fabulous impracticality exists.” —Becca Rothfeld, The Washington
Post
“Written in that rich, dramatic speaking style . . . Every Man for
Himself and God Against All is packed with memorable vignettes and
tidbits of information . . . God also makes two appearances . . .
But what He’s wearing is something only Herzog could dream up. So
is every word in this entertaining and informative book.” —Odie
Henderson, The Boston Globe
“Like his films (Fitzcarraldo, say, or Aguirre, the Wrath of God),
Herzog’s memoir is a decidedly nontraditional piece of storytelling
. . . The book is written in a literary voice that is outspoken and
conversational . . . (The translation by Hofmann, who has also
translated books by Wim Wenders and Franz Kafka, is delightful.) A
fascinating portrait of an inventive and idiosyncratic filmmaker.”
—Booklist
“Herzog in all his extravagant, perspicacious glory . .
. witty and captivating as he recollects all kinds of odd,
curious, and outlandish events, people, and injuries . .
. Fans and neophytes alike will relish the opportunity to
delve deeply into Herzog’s fascinating mind.” —Kirkus (starred
review)
International Praise
“Every Man for Himself and God Against All is a literary event unto
itself, and the fact that it mirrors Werner Herzog's life through
his own eyes makes it all the more powerful. In particular the end
of the book, which is a true a sensation . . . a
must-read!” —Freunde der Künste
“A book to marvel at—until the very last line.” —WDR
“His prose is infused with poetry and full of lyrical passages”
—Deutsche Welle
“An event” —Süddeutsche Zeitung
“Of greatest significance, however, are the memoirs that Werner
Herzog has now published under the title of one of his films: Every
Man for Himself and God Against All. Herzog is a magnificent,
seductive narrator. He allows himself to be steered by his own
associative thinking without a second of boredom.” —SWR
“Herzog's book depicts in cool, sparse, poetic language, the
primitiveness and magic of the archaic rural conditions in which he
spent his early childhood years” —Spiegel
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