NewPhilosopherby Warren WardWhen Friedrich Nietzsche first
met Cosima von Bülow, heavily preg-
nant, in a white flowing dress on the
shores of Lake Tribschen, he was
instantly smitten. Richard Wagner
had invited Nietzsche to his lakeside
residence after meeting him in Leip-
zig a few months earlier. On arriving,
the young philologist was shocked to
find Wagner ‘living in sin’ with Co-
sima, expecting her third child to the
composer despite being married to his
conductor, Hans von Bülow.
Cosima had an exotic provenance.
The illegitimate daughter of Franz
Liszt and socialite Marie d’Agoult, she
had spent little time with her father
growing up, but he ensured she had
the best governesses and was educated
at Paris’s most prestigious schools.
The twenty-four-year-old Ni-
etzsche had never encountered a
woman as confident, cosmopolitan,and sexually free as Cosima. Nietzsche
had spent his childhood in the remote
village of Rücken surrounded by tra-
ditional, provincial women. His fa-
ther had died when he was four, and
he was raised by his mother, doting
sister, paternal grandmother, and two
maiden aunts. Cosima’s free-and-easy
flamboyance transfixed him from their
first encounter.
A few months after Nietzsche’s ar-
rival, Cosima divorced von Bülow and
married Wagner, moving in with him
permanently. The Wagners regularly
invited Nietzsche to stay with them for
extended periods. When Wagner was
out of town visiting patrons or plan-
ning productions, he encouraged his
young friend to stay and keep Cosima
company. Cosima and Nietzsche spent
many hours together reading, writing,
playing piano, and taking long walks on
the shores of Lake Tribschen.What Cosima didn’t know was
that Nietzsche, whenever he returned
to his university accommodation in
Basel, was secretly working on a trea-
tise inspired by his feelings for her.
Nietzsche dared not openly express
these feelings for two reasons. First, he
revered Wagner, regarding him as the
greatest artist of all time, and wouldn’t
countenance doing anything to dis-
turb him. Second, as a result of his
rather pious upbringing – Nietzsche’s
father had been a respected Lutheran
preacher – he did not find it easy to
freely admit his desires.
Nietzsche’s treatise was called
The Birth of Tragedy. In this strange,
groundbreaking work, he described
how, at the dawn of civilisation, there
had been two ancient Greek cults vy-
ing for dominance: the Apollonians
and Dionysians. The Appollonians- who worshipped reason, logic and
Here we present the winners of New Philosopher Writers’ Award XXIII: being hu-
man, which saw a record number of entries from around the world. In first place is
psychiatrist and writer Warren Ward for his piece Human, all too human. Economist
Warwick Smith has taken out second place for his essay A failure of collective intel-
ligence. For the first time we are also awarding ‘highly commended’ to an entry: the
poem growing pains by Leona Hannah Cohen.Human, all too human
Writers’ Award XXIII: being human