''La Esperantisto'' (
English
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English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: ''The Esperantist''), stylised as ''La Esperantisto.'', was the first
Esperanto periodical, published from 1889 to 1895.
L. L. Zamenhof
L. L. Zamenhof (15 December 185914 April 1917) was an ophthalmologist who lived for most of his life in Warsaw. He is best known as the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language.
Zamenhof first dev ...
started it in order to provide reading material for the then-nascent Esperanto community.
Its original publisher was Christian Schmidt, president of the Nuremberg International Language Club, the first
Esperanto club. Later, it was published by Wilhelm Trompeter, a major financial backer of the early Esperanto movement.
History
L. L. Zamenhof first introduced Esperanto to the public in 1887 with the publication of ''
Unua Libro
''Dr. Esperanto's International Language'' (russian: Международный язык), commonly referred to as ' (''First Book''), is an 1887 book by Polish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof, in which he first introduced and described the co ...
'', followed by ''
Dua Libro'' in 1888. He began to receive letters from individuals expressing interest in the project, prompting him to provide reading material for the nascent Esperanto community. He first attempted to publish a weekly newspaper for this purpose in 1888 titled ''La Internaciulo'' (''The Internationalist''), but he failed to find a publisher.
After modifying his idea to the monthly ''La Esperantisto'', Zamenhof found a publisher in Christian Schmidt, president of the Nuremberg International Language Club, the first
Esperanto club in the world based in Nuremberg, Germany. The club had previously been a club devoted to
Volapük
Volapük (; , "Language of the World", or lit. "World Speak") is a constructed language created between 1879 and 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Catholic priest in Baden, Germany, who believed that God had told him in a dream to create an ...
but officially switched its dedication to Esperanto at its general meeting on December 18, 1888, having lost hope in the viability of Volapük. Schmidt published the periodical until 1891, when he ceased publication due to disagreements with Zamenhof. That same year, Wilhelm Heinrich Trompeter took over as publisher.
''La Esperantisto'' was published monthly. Its number of subscribers peaked in 1893 at 889.
In January 1894, Zamenhof proposed a
radical reform to Esperanto that proved to be unpopular and led many to unsubscribe from ''La Esperantisto''. He later retracted the proposed reform and referred to 1894 as a "wasted year".
Zamenhof then translated and published part of
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
's essay "Reason or Faith" in ''La Esperantisto'', which led to the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
banning the publication for advocating
civil disobedience, resulting in hundreds of subscribers lost. Tolstoy himself successfully appealed the ban in May 1895, but it was too late to revive the journal and its publication was permanently cancelled soon thereafter.
''
Lingvo Internacia'', a monthly Esperanto periodical, emerged in
Sweden in December 1895 and largely fulfilled the role of ''La Esperantisto'' after its cancellation.
Although the periodical was short-lived, it played an important role in the
history of Esperanto, serving as a model publication for future periodicals and providing an early basis of community among early
Esperantist
An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...
s.
See also
*
List of Esperanto periodicals
Notes
References
*
*
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Esperanto in Germany
Esperanto magazines
Esperanto publications
1889 establishments in Germany
1895 disestablishments in Germany