Keith Ansell-Pearson has had a remarkable influence on the global scholarly appreciation of Nietzsche’s life and thought. On 28 April 1990, he launched the Nietzsche Society of Great Britain (as the Friedrich Nietzsche Society was originally titled), with a founding conference hosted and supported by the Philosophy Department at the University of Essex. Close to 200 people were in attendance with plenary speakers that included David E. Cooper and Richard Schacht.
The second annual conference, held in 1991 at the University of Warwick, saw the production and availability of the very first issue of the Journal of Nietzsche Studies, which bore the date ‘Spring 1991’. This maiden edition featured Ansell-Pearson’s own article ‘Translations from Nietzsche’s Nachlass 1881-1884’, as well as articles by Gary Shapiro, Plinio Walter Prado Jr., and Gary Banham. The Journal’s first editor was Howard Caygill, with David Owen (who subsequently became editor) and Nigel Tubbs as assistant editors.
Having previously held a post at the University of Malawi, from 1988 until 1993 Ansell-Pearson was Lecturer in Modern Political Thought at Queen Mary College, University of London, where David Owen was also a teaching assistant. David Owen played a key role in supporting Ansell-Pearson in the launch of both FNS and the Journal. He was also supported by Reg Hollingdale and who was eventually elected the first Honorary President of FNS. In the early, and ensuing, years of the Society’s existence he also received invaluable support from Daniel Conway and Duncan Large, both stalwarts of the Society over many years.
Ansell-Pearson organised and staged one of the best attended FNS conferences in its history, held 10-11 May 2002, at the University of Warwick. Nearly 200 delegates packed into Warwick’s conference spaces to listen to papers devoted to the theme of ‘Nietzsche, Art and Aesthetics’.
Aside from numerous articles in a wide range of international scholarly journals, a small sample of Ansell-Pearson’s published books include Nietzsche contra Rousseau (Cambridge University Press, 1991); Nietzsche and Modern German Thought (Routledge, 1991); Nietzsche's Search for Philosophy: On the Middle Writings (Bloomsbury Press, 2018); and Nietzsche's Dawn: Philosophy, Ethics, and the Passion of Knowledge (co-authored with Rebecca Bamford; Wiley Blackwell, 2020). With Duncan Large as co-editor he also published The Nietzsche Reader in 2006 with Wiley Blackwell. He has served for many years on the editorial boards of both Nietzsche-Studien and the Journal of Nietzsche Studies.
It would be very difficult to overstate the debt owed to Keith by a worldwide cast of scholars, students, and former students – some of whom now hold positions as Nietzsche scholars in their own right. FNS owes its existence to him, and we are extremely proud to have him now serve FNS as its Honorary President. He joined Warwick’s Philosophy Department as a lecturer in 1993 and was promoted to a Personal Chair in 1998. He retires from Warwick, and from academic life in general, this September and after a teaching career spanning 35 years.
The second annual conference, held in 1991 at the University of Warwick, saw the production and availability of the very first issue of the Journal of Nietzsche Studies, which bore the date ‘Spring 1991’. This maiden edition featured Ansell-Pearson’s own article ‘Translations from Nietzsche’s Nachlass 1881-1884’, as well as articles by Gary Shapiro, Plinio Walter Prado Jr., and Gary Banham. The Journal’s first editor was Howard Caygill, with David Owen (who subsequently became editor) and Nigel Tubbs as assistant editors.
Having previously held a post at the University of Malawi, from 1988 until 1993 Ansell-Pearson was Lecturer in Modern Political Thought at Queen Mary College, University of London, where David Owen was also a teaching assistant. David Owen played a key role in supporting Ansell-Pearson in the launch of both FNS and the Journal. He was also supported by Reg Hollingdale and who was eventually elected the first Honorary President of FNS. In the early, and ensuing, years of the Society’s existence he also received invaluable support from Daniel Conway and Duncan Large, both stalwarts of the Society over many years.
Ansell-Pearson organised and staged one of the best attended FNS conferences in its history, held 10-11 May 2002, at the University of Warwick. Nearly 200 delegates packed into Warwick’s conference spaces to listen to papers devoted to the theme of ‘Nietzsche, Art and Aesthetics’.
Aside from numerous articles in a wide range of international scholarly journals, a small sample of Ansell-Pearson’s published books include Nietzsche contra Rousseau (Cambridge University Press, 1991); Nietzsche and Modern German Thought (Routledge, 1991); Nietzsche's Search for Philosophy: On the Middle Writings (Bloomsbury Press, 2018); and Nietzsche's Dawn: Philosophy, Ethics, and the Passion of Knowledge (co-authored with Rebecca Bamford; Wiley Blackwell, 2020). With Duncan Large as co-editor he also published The Nietzsche Reader in 2006 with Wiley Blackwell. He has served for many years on the editorial boards of both Nietzsche-Studien and the Journal of Nietzsche Studies.
It would be very difficult to overstate the debt owed to Keith by a worldwide cast of scholars, students, and former students – some of whom now hold positions as Nietzsche scholars in their own right. FNS owes its existence to him, and we are extremely proud to have him now serve FNS as its Honorary President. He joined Warwick’s Philosophy Department as a lecturer in 1993 and was promoted to a Personal Chair in 1998. He retires from Warwick, and from academic life in general, this September and after a teaching career spanning 35 years.