author

G. J. (George J.) Adler

1821–1868

A 19th-century German-American linguist and teacher, he helped generations of English-speaking students approach German through practical textbooks and a widely used dictionary. His life joined scholarship, immigration, and the early growth of modern language study in New York.

1 Audiobook

Letters of a Lunatic

Letters of a Lunatic

by G. J. (George J.) Adler

About the author

Born in Germany in 1821, he came to the United States with his family in 1833 and grew up in New York City. He studied at the University of the City of New York, graduating as valedictorian in 1844, and soon after became a professor of German there.

He is best remembered as a philologist and language teacher. His textbooks and his Dictionary of the German and English Languages made him an important figure in German study for American readers in the mid-1800s, combining scholarly knowledge with a practical classroom approach.

Sources agree that he spent his final years at the Bloomingdale asylum, where he died in 1868. Even so, his reputation has lasted through the usefulness of his language books, which continued to circulate long after his death.