NEUBERG, JOSEPH:

English litterateur; secretary to Thomas Carlyle; born at Würzburg, Bavaria, May 21, 1806; died in London March 23, 1867. At first he entered into business at Hamburg, and was afterward placed in a position of much responsibility at Nottingham, being subsequently taken into partnership. He took much interest in matters affecting the well-being of the working classes, and for some years was president of the People's College and of the literary department of the Mechanics' Institute. Neuberg was naturalized in England on June 16, 1845; he studied at the University of Bonn from 1850 to 1853. He was introduced to Carlyle by Emerson in 1848, and acted as "voluntary secretary" to the former in 1849. Three years later he was Carlyle's companion and guide over the battle-fields of Frederick the Great. In 1853 Neuberg returned to England to resume his position as "voluntary secretary" to Carlyle. In 1865 Carlyle published the last volumes of his life of Frederick the Great, in one of which is the dedication "To Joseph Neuberg, Esq., my faithful attendant and helper in this work." Neuberg, who had translated into German "On Heroes and Hero-Worship" in 1853, undertook to translate this work also, but lived only long enough to translate the first four volumes and part of the fifth.

Bibliography:
  • Macmillan's Magazine, Aug., 1884, pp. 280-297;
  • J. A. Froude, Thomas Carlyle's Life in London, passim.
J. G. L.
Images of pages