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 any terms he pleases." This work was issued separately. London, 1792, 8.

Such is the history of the book during the first eight or constructive years of its existence, beyond which it is unnecessary to trace it, until at least we have touched upon the long-vexed question of its authorship.

Munchausen's travels have in fact been ascribed to as many different hands as those of Odysseus. But (as in most other respects) it differs from the more ancient fabulous narrative in that its authorship has been the subject of but little controversy. Many people have entertained erroneous notions as to its authorship, which they have circulated with complete assurance; but they have not felt it incumbent upon them to support their own views or to combat those of other people. It has, moreover, been frequently stated with equal confidence and inaccuracy that the authorship has never been settled. An early and persistent version of the genesis of the travels was that they took their origin from the rivalry in fabulous tales of three accomplished students at Göttingen University, Bürger, Kästner, and Lichtenberg; another ran that Gottfried August Bürger, the German poet and author of "Lenore," had at a later stage of his career met Baron Mun-