Karl May and his invented travelogues
Karl May (1842-1912) was a highly popular German author of adventure novels. He is one of Germany's best-selling authors of all time, with an estimated 200 million copies of his books sold worldwide. He is best known for his "Travel Tales," which were written from a first-person perspective and were set in exotic locations such as the American Old West and the Orient. What He Wrote About May's most famous works are his Western novels, which feature the German character Old Shatterhand and his Apache friend, Winnetou. His vivid descriptions convinced many readers that his stories were based on his own real-life experiences, even though he had never been to the American West or many of the other locations he wrote about when he was at the height of his career. Despite his lack of direct experience, he created a convincing vision of these places using atlases, encyclopedias, and travelogues. Later in his career, he wrote more philosophical and allegorical works. His Inf...
