"But this belief in the journal [Propylaea] as the organ of men of taste throughout the German-speaking world was deeply shaken by the news which Cotta sent Goethe at the end of June [1799]: sales in the first year were no more than 450 an issue, barely enough to cover Goethe's fee, and Cotta had so far lost nearly 2,000 dollars on the venture. Goethe, desperately disappointed, felt 'wakened from a dream'."
-- Goethe: The Poet and the Age: Volume II: Revolution and Renunciation, 1790-1803, Nicolas Boyle, 2000, p. 634.
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