I wanted to ask this since I was a boy. I'm especially interested in responses from all of you living in the USA.
I do suspect something, therefore I don't want to say anything about Karl May right now...

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/karlmay.htm

An a german author it seems... one of his characters is called Hadschi Alef Omar ibn Hadschi Abu Abbas ibn Hadschi Dawud al Gosarah... now there is a mouthful... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Yes, right JC.
The reason for my question is, that he wrote a lot of adventure novels, dealing with cowboys an indians. Did you ever hear the name Winnetou? Or Old Shatterhand?

I think I saw the movie Winnetau as a kid... long time ago... don't remember much of it.

Ah, memories [img]smile.gif[/img] I've read some of them ... let's see ... 25-26 years back. They made a couple of movies in 60's after his books too (starring Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand, i think).
I've read someplace that he wrote all of his books in prison and never saw the lands he was writting about.

Neuro

Well as far as I know he travelled a lot (except the times he's been in prison).

So far there's been some european answers. I'm really anxious to the answers coming from overseas...

[ 12-17-2002, 05:25 AM: Message edited by: Borvik ]

Yes (ignore my from germany location) I grew up in the US and I knew who he was and have read his books.

You did? I had no idea, that anybody else than germans do know him. Somehow I always had the feeling, if an american would begin reading these books, the next thing would be him/her ROFL. I can't explain why though.

[ 12-17-2002, 09:09 AM: Message edited by: Borvik ]

A German author of a lot of western books. The stories about Winnetou and old shatterhand were sold to Hollywood. I saw all those movies when i was younger.

Hollywood [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] Are you sure about that??? I saw the movies too - of course. But as far as I know they are all european productions. Coproduced by Germany, Italy and other european countries.

My bad... i thought they were American productions. Well, i WAS right about Karl May, wasn't i ?

Yes my brother, you were right 'bout him [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]
(I thought there is a pipe smoking smiley too somewhere, but couldn't find it)

Here you go. :D

http://www.bong.com/images/waterpipe.../zong/zbub.jpg

You won't tell me that this is a pipe!? That's an exhaust pipe! [img]graemlins/scream.gif[/img]
No way, Winnetou wouldn't smoke this one!!!

EDIT: rereading this post, it sounds weird to me - if it's not a pipe, why is it a pipe then? That's too confusing for me, I'll leave it up to you... *a pipe is a pipe, is a pipe...*

[ 12-18-2002, 07:35 AM: Message edited by: Borvik ]

I think this is what they call a "bong". :D

So in one way or the other, it's exhausting too I guess! ;)

Thats a neat looking Bong!

Karl May is my favourite author ever!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

I still like his books even though they are aimed at teenagers. Let's seee....*counts on bookshel* I have 21 Karl May books [img]smile.gif[/img]

Most of them never got translated into English so I wouldn't be surprised if most of you Americans haven't heard of May. Lucky I've got them all in Hungarian :D

You guys telling me that his books have been made into films??? I've never heard of them! Let me at em! :D Seriously, where can I get hold of those films?
The only Winnetou and Old Shatterhand-related film I've heard of was a spoof, made in Germany released last year.

[ 12-18-2002, 09:06 AM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

I've seen a DVD edition some time ago. So I guess they are out on Video too. Don't know though, if they are available in english.

Well I guess they'd be available in german. It doesn't matter anyway I'm sure there'd be English subtitles. I'll do a search ...

Try amazon, I saw them there.