Christian Friedrich Nicolai, a German publisher, editor, and author, was born in Berlin and studied there and at a Pietist institution in Halle, but he never attended a university. Nicolai spent three years as a business apprentice in Frankfurt an der Oder. Upon his father's death in 1752, he took over the family bookstore, managing it—except for a short period—until his death and expanding it into a very successful and lucrative publishing house. He became a close friend of G. E. Lessing and of Moses Mendelssohn, and was active in Berlin intellectual life. He edited the Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und freien Künste (Library of aesthetics and fine arts) from 1757 to 1758, the Literaturbriefe (Letters on literature) from 1759 to 1765, and the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek (Universal German library) from 1765 on. The last-mentioned journal became the most famous German literary review of...