Correspondence with Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, 1913-1934.

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Correspondence with Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, 1913-1934.

1 letter from Kafka, dated 1913, is addressed to Kurt Pinthus; it is an appeal to Pinthus to assist the Russian-born Yiddish actor Yizchak Löwy (1887-1942) by arranging a recitation evening for him in Leipzig. Kafka apparently forwarded the letter to Franz Werfel, who was at that time a colleague of Pinthus in Leipzig; according to the German literary scholar Hartmut Binder, it is believed that Werfel discussed the content of the letter in person with Pinthus, so that the letter was never actually delivered to the addressee. Binder published the letter, with a commentary, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 1983 and forwarded a clipping of the article (included) to Lyman Riley at the University of Pennsylvania. Also included are an undated draft of 1 letter from Alma Mahler to Kafka and 2 published versions of an excerpt from a letter that Werfel wrote to Robert Klopstock, dated 1934, in which Werfel expresses his deep impression of Kafka's significance as a writer: 1 of these latter items is a theater program (in which the excerpt is reprinted) for a performance in Vienna, in 1952-1953, of the play Der Prozess, by André Gide and J. L. Barrault, based on Kafka's novel; and 1 is a typed transcript of Lienhard Bergel's English translation of the same excerpt, as published in The Kafka Problem ed. Angel Flores (1946). In addition, the folder contains excerpts pertaining to Werfel from biographical documents of Kafka, which apparently were forwarded to Adolf Klarmann: several from Kafka's letters to Milena (copied out by Willy Haas at the time that he was editing those letters); and one from Kafka's diaries (copied out by Heinz Politzer).

7 items (12 leaves).

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Related Entities

There are 7 Entities related to this resource.

Binder, Hartmut.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nv9kjz (person)

Politzer, Heinz, 1910-1978

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f191bh (person)

Pinthus, Kurt, 1886-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64q7x78 (person)

Pinthus had been a friend of Werfel since their days as colleagues at Kurt Wolff Verlag in Leipzig, from 1912 until the First World War. Pinthus emigrated to the U.S. in 1937. Else Pinthus was Kurt's wife. From the description of Correspondence with Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, 1941-1964. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155864584 ...

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nm4420 (person)

Franz Kafka (b. July 3, 1883, Prague, Czech Republic–d. June 3, 1924, Klosterneuburg, Austria) was a novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work, which fuses elements of realism and the fantastic, typically features isolated protagonists faced by bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers, and has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absur...

Klopstock, Robert, 1899-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vm4dt1 (person)

Haas, Willy, 1891-1973.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64m96wt (person)

Born and raised in Prague, Willy Haas was a film critic and screenplay writer in Berlin during the Weimar Republic and was co-founder with Ernst Rowohlt of the periodical Die literarische Welt. Of Jewish descent, he was forced to leave Germany in 1933 and returned to Prague, where he mostly worked as a film critic and editor. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, he fled to Italy and then emigrated to India, where he spent the remainder of the war years. Among other things, he w...

Riley, Lyman W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67h1n46 (person)