The Red Book (Jung)

The Red Book
Liber Novus, original of 'The Red Book'
AuthorCarl Gustav Jung
Original titleLiber Novus ("New Book")
TranslatorMark Kyburz
John Peck
Sonu Shamdasani
IllustratorCarl Jung
LanguageGerman (First published alongside English translation)
Genrediary
PublisherPhilemon Foundation and
W. W. Norton & Co.
Publication date
2009
Pages404
ISBN978-0-393-06567-1
OCLC317919484
150.19/54 22
LC ClassBF109.J8 A3 2009

The Red Book: Liber Novus is a folio manuscript so named due to its original red leather binding. The work was crafted by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung between 1914[1]: 40 (ft.124)  and about 1930. It follows, records and comments in fair copy on the author's psychological observations and experiments on himself between 1913 and 1916, and draws on working drafts contained in a series of notebooks or journals, now known as the Black Books. Jung produced these beginning in 1913 and continued until 1917.[2][3] Despite being considered as the origin of Jung's main oeuvre,[4] it was probably never intended for conventional publication and the material was not published nor made otherwise accessible for study until 2009.

In October 2009, with the cooperation of Jung's estate, The Red Book was published by W. W. Norton in a facsimile edition, complete with an English translation, three appendices, and over 1,500 editorial notes.[5] Editions and translations in several other languages soon followed.

In December 2012, Norton additionally released a "Reader's Edition" of the work; this smaller format edition includes the complete translated text of The Red Book along with the introduction and notes prepared by Sonu Shamdasani, but it omits the facsimile reproduction of Jung's original calligraphic manuscript.[1]

While the work has in past years been commonly referred to as "The Red Book", Jung did emboss a formal title on the spine of his leather-bound folio: his chosen title for the work was Liber Novus - Latin for "New Book". His manuscript is now increasingly cited as Liber Novus, and under this title implicitly includes draft material intended for but never finally transcribed into the red leather folio proper.[3]

  1. ^ a b Jung, Carl Gustav (2012). Shamdasani, Sonu (ed.). The Red Book (Liber Novus): A Reader's Edition. Translated by Shamdasani, Sonu; Peck, John; Kyburz, Mark (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-08908-0. OCLC 822339865. Note that in this edition several footnotes are updated and typographical errors found in the original printings of the facsimile edition are corrected.
  2. ^ Jung, Carl Gustav (2020). Shamdasani, Sonu (ed.). The Black Books. Translated by Liebscher, Martin; Peck, John. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-08864-9. OCLC 1135934584.
  3. ^ a b Owens & Hoeller (2014), p. 1.
  4. ^ Liber Novus, p. 221.
  5. ^ Liber Novus.