Nemsi Books Publishing Company

We specialize in publishing the English translations of Karl May who is Germany’s most published author. His world famous “Traveler’s Tales” have excited young and old for more than a century. Here, for the first time, is an ever growing collection of his writings, translated into English by Karl May enthusiasts.

Our mission is to bring the enduring message of peace, tolerance and harmony, championed in Karl May’s original manuscripts, to the English speaking world.

But we do not restrict ourselves to purely Karl May’s work. We also publish other works of humanitarian interest.

Hence if you have written a book, what comes next? Obviously you would like to see it published.
But who will publish it for you?
There are many publishers, but few will take a risk with a first time author.
Our Publishing Company has a number of solutions for you here.

Due to the ever increasing shipping cost, we have received requests from around the world for downloadable eBooks. Nemsi Books is therefore proud to announce that Karl May’s original, unabridged, English language works, are now available in the standard format set by the international Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). This ePub format is designed for re-flowable content, meaning that an ePub reader can optimize the book’s text for a particular display device.
To assist our reading public, we have provided a link to Adobe’s free downloadable eReader software (Adobe Digital Editions) able to open our ePub offering – and Yes! – You can also read our ePub books on an iPad if you use the free BlueFire reader available from your iPad App Store.


Our ePub books are available here. … be patient, more books are coming soon ….

Arnold Schwarzenegger

… But I have to say that Karl May wrote my favorite stories. He was a German who had never seen a real cowboy or Indian, but somehow he wrote fantastic stories about this wise Apache chief named Winnetou and his cowboy friend Old Shatterhand. The stories taught me a powerful lesson about getting along despite differences, but more importantly, they opened up my world and gave me a window to see America. I still don’t understand how Karl May was able to paint such an incredible picture of something he had never seen, but I do know that the cowboy stories immediately captured my attention and made me interested to learn everything I could about America. … [New York Times - Sunday Book Review]

Read the Full Article Here

Some days I feel like picking up a cattle prod and sticking it right in the middle of parliament.

Merry Christmas from John Duncan
Minister of
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld // THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickFormer Ontario Lieutenant-Governor James Bartleman is the latest political figure to urge Prime Minister Stephen Harper, left, to meet with hunger-striking First Nations chief Theresa Spence.

Last year it was Attawapiskat. A state of emergency, just in time for Christmas, actually just in time for the cold winter weather was what confronted the minister. The way he handled it was a remarkable feat of arrogance, incompetence, and total ignorance. Had it not been for the work of the Red Cross, the generous donations of ordinary Canadians, and the resilience of the residents of the reserve, their chief and counsel, it would have been a world-class disaster.
It’s a year later now and guess what? There’s a brand new state of emergency declared at the reserve right next door to Attawapiskat. There is a serious fuel shortage to heat buildings, forcing school and public building shutdowns. There are twenty-one homes that were flooded during the summer whose electrical systems need repair before re-using. All of this leads to unemployment, withdrawal of services and basic shutdown of the reserve’s operating system, piling up the hardships of its residents.
All of this and Stumble-bum Duncan remains invisible. Maybe he’s still licking his wounds from last Christmas, or maybe, having delivered his Christmas disaster for this year, is already planning the next one. I rather suspect the latter is the case. The government has become so steeped in intransigence as concerns Aboriginal people; it can’t seem to recognize genuine catastrophes it creates in the Aboriginal communities. I don’t know, maybe it’s deliberate. It seems the government has two philosophies in the way it runs its affairs: proactive and reactive. The former is for international affairs, trade development and image building, while the latter is for domestic affairs. I swear that if you told them to go home and mind their own business, they would have no idea what you’re talking about. They’d likely take it as an insult rather than a demand that they go home and look after their domestic affairs.
Even our “esteemed” prime minister is part of this mindset. Last year Theresa Spence, chief of Attawapiskat, was exonerated of any wrongdoing in the spending of the funds available to her. She is an honest leader of her people, genuinely concerned about their well-being. This year she demanded an audience with the said “esteemed” prime minister to discuss the needs of her people. When he didn’t respond, she went on a hunger strike and continues to this day. Still no response from the P.M. I think the bugger is afraid of her. So he hides behind the perennial W.A.S.P. mentality, hoping she will go away.
I think the time has passed for direct negotiation with the Canadian government. It is now a matter for the world court to deal with. They should apprehend Duncan and the Prime minister and hold them in custody in The Hague until these abuses are dealt with. There is neither need nor reason for Ms. Spence to be martyred for what she believes to be justice for her people. We are no longer in the middle ages for God’s sake and its time to move from a reactive to a proactive model of governance. For nearly a hundred years except for a break during WWI the government imposed the Crow Rate on the railways to level the playing field for farmers and mining companies to ship their products to Thunder Bay at the same cost as their eastern counterparts. What’s wrong with imposing the same restriction on transportation companies traveling up north? You’d instantly fix the disparity in the cost of living in the north. Legislate something! Hells bells, I’m just a simple old white guy and even I can see solutions to these seemingly insurmountable problems. They are nothing that a little honesty and goodwill can’t fix. At least that’s how it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

Just sayin’.

Oriental Odyssey VII
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This book is the seventh part of the Oriental Odyssey series. Kara ben Nemsi and Hajji Halef Omar face Turkish justice in Ostromja. After exposing the corrupt officials and the fake holy man known as the Mübarek, they leave town after being warned of an ambush plot by two brothers known as the Alajy. Kara ben Nemsi disguises himself as a Sherif and foils their plan but is later trapped with his companions in the bandits’ stronghold. During their subsequent escape the old Mübarek is wounded and one of the robbers is killed. But Kara ben Nemsi is far from safe, he falls prey to the law of blood vengeance. Now guided by one of the Schut’s men, the little troop is lured into another trap. Their lucky encounter with Anka, a servant girl, forewarns them of a plot against all their lives. Later, whilst crossing a storm swollen river, Kara ben Nemsi rescues a woman and learns more about the Schut’s stronghold.

The Mahdi I
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A Turkish trader befriends the narrator and invites him into his Cairo home where he uncovers a fake ghost, who turns out to be the leader of a powerful Muslim organization. The Turk then induces his guest to accompany him to the Sudan. Circumstances however force the narrator to travel ahead alone up the Nile River on a sailing ship. The ship’s crew turns out to be accomplices of a Muslim leader, who are slave traders. An Egyptian naval officer arrests the ship’s crew and invites the narrator to continue his travel upriver with him. Arriving in Asyut he is hosted at a Pasha’s residence, tames an Arab stallion, and visits a mummy cave. A Fakir lures him into a well from where he extricates himself. Joined by the Turk, the two continue to travel up the Nile. In the Sudan, the narrator discovers that his Turkish “friend” is actually allied with the slavers. The Egyptian naval officer asks for the narrator’s help and he intercepts a caravan of enslaved Bedouin women, returning them to their home and their tribe, the Bani Fassara.

In the Realm of the Silver Lion II

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In this continuation of the Silver Lion narrative, Kara Ben Nemsi and Halef set out to revisit ancient monuments that had been the sites of several of their previous adventures. On their way to the ruins of Babylon, they encounter two men wearing rings identifying them as members of the “Shadows,” an arcane cult involved in smuggling in the region. Using a ruse, our heroes are able to ascertain that these criminals are planning to ambush the caravan of a Persian chamberlain. During their quest to prevent the crime, Kara and Halef encounter some old foes, make new friends, and are locked up in a prison inside the Tower of Babel. Kara Ben Nemsi is able to escape, but will he be able to rescue his friend and secure the smugglers’ hidden treasures?

Defend Karl May! Say NO to the Winnetou Trademark!

Nemsi Books would like to thank all the people who signed the petition to cancel the Winnetou trademark. Your support has been and continues to be invaluable to us.

Federal Civil Court of California Accepts Karl May USA’s Voluntary Dismissal.

Nemsi Books accepted Karl May USA, Inc.’s Stipulation of Voluntary Dismissal of all claims asserted in the lawsuit filed on March 31st, 2011 by Karl May USA, Inc.

On March 9th, 2012, the Honorable Dean D. Pregersen signed the order that Karl May USA, Inc. be dismissed with prejudice, that it file an express withdrawal of its clothing trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office within ten (10) days of this order, update the pending cancellation proceedings in connection with the trademark, and abandon the mark and all reference to the mark on all web sites owned and controlled by Karl May USA Inc. (see: Document 28)

Despite repeated requests to adhere to the above court order, Karl May USA, Inc. has to date not taken the proper steps to cancel the trademark.

In its order dated December 5th, 2002, the German Supreme Court confirmed that the name Winnetou had, due to its fame, become a synonym for a noble Indian Chief and was therefore not suitable to serve as a trademark for the publication of books, magazines or film productions that dealt with this fictional character. (see: BGH Ruling I ZB 19/00)

In 1963, fifty (50) years after Karl May’s death [1912], his works and the fictional characters he created entered the public domain. In this 100th anniversary year of Karl May’s death it is fitting that his iconic characters enjoy the total freedom they deserve.

Stop the exploitation! Join the movement and help us free Karl May’s iconic characters.

Subscription Required : THE NEW YORKER, April 09, 2012.

How nice to welcome Old Shatterhand in America again! The article by Rivka Galchen called “Wild West Germany” brought after some time again the famous German writer Karl May (1842-1912) to the attention of the ‘The New Yorker’ [Apr. 09, 2012 edition] readers. Exactly at the place where Karl May landed in 1908. Rivka Galchen described nicely what is happening today at May’s birthplace and even touched the fact that generations of Europeans are still fascinated by his writings as were people a century ago. She left out two halves of May’s other literary output, the Oriental stories and the philosophical books of his later years. However Rivka Galchen is writing as an American and for Americans and did this very well. Thanks to the article letters could be sent again from America to the so famous laconic address – as in the past did the famous Frontier men and the Indian chiefs: May – Radebeul – Germany. And as far as we know such letters did arrive safely indeed!

Somehow less informative are Rivka Galchen’s notes on Karl May’s life story. As fresh and colourful are her observations from today on May’s legacy, so somehow out of touch and biased is her version of what Karl May experienced whilst alive. I detect in the article a continuation of the old accusation by May’s enemies of him being a thief, a liar and a “Hochstapler” [trickster] when she says “a typically May-like ring of both truth and falsehood.” Karl May was a creative writer combining freely fiction with facts. This is not a crime! May also did not claim he was “mysteriously cured” from his vision impairment as a child. He suffered from Xerophthalmia and after coming into the hands of good doctors and being prescribed vitamin D and diet rich in vitamin A, his vision returned. Karl May did not claim to have been “mysteriously cured” but realistically described what happened to him in his biography.

The Rivka Galchen’s statement that Karl May “was later fired from a teaching job for stealing a pocket watch” is today not considered correct. Rivka could have gone to contemporary research on Karl May before repeating this slander of yesteryears. Also the “rumors [sic!] of an affair with a married woman” are fantasies created lately in another attack on Karl May’s integrity.

What attracted my attention and astonishment is Rivka Galchen’s statement “May ran the prison library, where he read a lot of Baedeker.” The idea of a prison library stuck up in those days with travel guides seems ludicrous. May never ever in his description of what books were available there mentioned any travel guides.

Karl May would not have been sentenced to prison terms nowadays. This has also been described lately and Rivka Galchen could have made the effort to peruse latest literature on Karl May instead of using old outdated sources. Rivka wrote “In the first volume of the Winnetou series, ‘Winnetou, the Apache Knight’”? This seems rather confusing to her. Book under this title appeared in the US in 1898 as a pirated version not mentioning Karl May’s name as the author. Instead it was published by Benziger Brothers under the name of the author who pirated it and bowdlerized the text as: “Taggart, M.A.: Winnetou, the Apache Knight.” Taggart also bowdlerized Karl May’s Winnetou I and II: “Taggart, M.A.: The Treasure of Nugget Mountain.” Benziger Brothers, USA 1898. Was Karl May right in complaining that his writings had been printed without his consent and he never received a penny as an author?

Rivka Galchen erroneously quotes the following sentences as written by Karl May, when in fact it comes from the pirated translated version by M.A. Taggart: “back home in Germany, Old Shatterhand was Jack Hildreth, a fourth child, and, by his own confession, a “dull kind of person, especially on a rainy day when I have to sit in the house alone with him.” And she continued with another fabrication by M.A. Taggart presenting it as an original Karl May’s sentence: “And so I found myself in a new and strange life, and beginning it with a new name, which became as familiar as dear to me as my own.”
There are more inaccuracies in the article: “A tale of a split soul, given to him by a good priest while he was in prison” writes Rivka Galchen. This historically documented person was not a priest, but a simple Catholic catechist Johannes Kochta. The description of the “split soul” from Karl May’s pen is clear nowadays to anyone who studied psychology. It is a very important piece to understand Karl May.

What is completely left out from the article is Karl May’s message in all his writings: peaceful solution of conflicts, equality of races, racial tolerance and motivation to become a better person. All this shortly before the WWI, which became a perversion of all what Karl May stood for in his books. The first female Nobel Prize winner for peace, Bertha von Suttner, appreciated Karl May’s work, as also did Albert Einstein. It is regrettable that the article does not mention this aspect of Karl May’s work worth preserving to posterity.

Dr. William E. Thomas, M.D.