one of his books. On his return, he lived first at Dresden and then at Brunswick. While preparing for a journey to India, China and Japan, he suffered a fatal cerebral haemorrhage on May 31, 1872. The widely traveled adventurer left an oeuvre of 44 volumes, which he edited himself for his Jena publisher H. Costenoble. His stories and novels inspired numerous imitators: Karl May profited from him and used landscape descriptions as well as subjects and characters. Even theatre and movie companies borrowed from his work: the critic George Jean Nathan credits the plot of the musical Brigadoon (1954) to Gerstäcker's short story Germelshausen, though this was denied by Lerner, the author of Brigadoon. The Friedrich-Gerstäcker-Gesellschaft e.V. (Fr. G. society) founded in 1978 in Braunschweig offers more information about Gerstäcker and runs a museum about his work. In 1957 Gerstäcker was made an honorary citizen of Arkansas. Works (selection) Streif- und Jagdzüge durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika (Rambling and Hunting in the United States of North America), 1844. Die Regulatoren in Arkansas (The Arkansas Regulators), 1845. Der deutschen Auswanderer Fahrten und Schicksale (Travels and Fates of the German Emigrants). Leipzig 1846. Mississippi-Bilder (Mississippi Images). 3 volumes, Leipzig 1847. Die Flußpiraten des Mississippi (Mississippi River Pirates). 3 volumes, Leipzig 1848. Gold. Ein californisches Lebensbild aus dem Jahre 1849 (Gold. An Image of Californian Life from the year 1848). 3 volumes, Jena 1858. Neue Reisen in Nordamerika, Mexiko, Ecuador, Westindien und Venezuela (New Travels in North America, Mexico, Ecuador, the West Indies, and Venezuela). 3 Volumes, Jena 1868. Black & White; In the Red River Swamps. Bilingual edition, translated and edited by Mark Gruettner and Robert Bareikis, Tintamarre, Shreveport 2006, . Secondary literature Couch, Richard Allen: Friedrich Gerstäcker's novels of the American frontier. Dissertation, University of Iowa, Iowa City 1999 / UMI, Ann Arbor, MI 2000. Ostwald, Thomas: Friedrich Gerstäcker: Leben und Werk; Biographie eines Ruhelosen. Friedrich-Gerstäcker-Gesellschaft / Edition Corsar, Braunschweig 2007 (408 pp.), (major biography, in German language; the title translates: F. G.: Life and Work[s]; Biography of a restless one.). Sammons, Jeffrey L.: Ideology, nemesis, fantasy: Charles Sealsfield, Friedrich Gerstäcker, Karl May, and other German novelists of America. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1998, . Woodson, Lerry Henry: American Negro Slavery in the works of Friederich Strubberg, Friedrich Gerstäcker and Otto Ruppers: A dissertation etc. Catholic University of America Press, Washington 1949. Zangerl, Anton: Friedrich Gerstäcker