Correspondence with Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, 1936-1964.

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Correspondence with Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, 1936-1964.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/155863651

In addition to his extensive scholarly contributions to the dissemination of Franz Werfel's work, Adolf Klarmann, together with his wife, Isolde Klarmann, carried on a personal friendship with Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel. Correspondence until the time of Werfel's death, in 1945, reflects Klarmann's visits with Alma and Franz in Austria and New York and sometimes details about Werfel's current work. In 1 letter to Gottfried Bermann Fischer of 1945 Werfel indicates that Klarmann was planning a book about Werfel and expresses his appreciation and respect for Klarmann's scholarship. Shortly after Werfel's death, a long letter from Alma Mahler speaks about Werfel's condition in recent days and the circumstances of his death. Besides personal news and expressions of friendship between Alma Mahler and the Klarmanns, subsequent correspondence takes in the following aspects: Klarmann's scholarship on Werfel (and contact with other scholars) and his edited volumes of Werfel's works (including copyright matters), as well as decisions about manuscripts by Werfel, including his unfinished novel Cella and his last novel, Stern der Ungeborenen, for which Werfel completed only the first draft; the possibility of adaptations of Werfel's work (Klarmann corresponds with Paul Koretz and Saul Rogers in 1948 about the suitability of certain works for American film or theater adaptations); and the disposition of Werfel's archive, as well as Klarmann's gathering of materials by and related to Werfel. In a letter to Alma of Oct. 1945 (carbon copy), Klarman encloses a draft English translation of Franz Werfel's essay "Gustav Mahler." In a letter of Feb. 1949 he responds to Alma about his reading of her diaries in connection with her plans to publish a memoir. A few special highlights among letters from Alma Mahler: 1 letter of 1954 encloses handwritten notes that Franz Werfel had dictated to Alma in 1938, concerning the second part of his novel Die Geschwister von Neapel; 1 letter in 1961, which encloses a notarized will, concerns Alma's authorizing of her daughter Anna Mahler to make decisions after Alma's death about the disposition of all papers and manuscripts in Alma's possession, some of which were planned to be deposited at the University of Pennsylvania (the document gives Adolf Klarmann the right to make decisions on all publication matters pertaining to Werfel's works, subject to the approval of Anna Mahler); and 1 letter from Alma to S. Fischer Verlag in 1962 concerns her assertion of her exclusive decision-making role in an ongoing discussion (among the publisher, Klarmann and Alma Mahler) about the possible publication of Werfel's letters to Alma. Following are some additional items that are included: a photographic print of a charcoal portrait of Franz Werfel by Lene Schneider-Kainer (1885-1971), from around 1925; copies of 2 published essays by Adolf Klarmann, with personal dedications to Alma Mahler: 1 about Franz Werfel ("Das Weltbild Franz Werfels," published in the journal Wissenschaft und Weltbild), dated 1954, and 1 undated reprint of an essay entitled "Psychological Motivation in Grillparzer's 'Sappho'" (published in the journal Monatshefte); and a total of 16 newspaper clippings about Alma Mahler. 11 of the clippings are obituaries or other articles related to Alma's death, dated from Dec. 1964 to early 1965; 1 is a letter to the editor from Alma Mahler (with the heading "Warum ich fernbleibe") published in an Austrian newspaper in 1955; 1 is a review of Alma's memoir And the Bridge is Love in Newsweek in 1958; 2 are items about Alma from Austrian newspapers in 1961; and 1 is an undated clipping from the New York Times, about a protest letter pertaining to Austria's refusal to settle reparation claims with Jewish organizations, which was signed by 4 prominent former Austrians who had become American citizens, including Alma Mahler. See also separate container of Klarmann's short critical works on Franz Werfel.

343 items (485 leaves).

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University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Van Pelt Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6887733

University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Van Pelt Library

Related Entities

There are 14 Entities related to this resource.

Kertes, Susi.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64r59p7 (person)

Susi Kertes was a close family friend of Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel since at least the 1930s; Susi had been a friend of Alma's daughter and Franz's stepdaughter Manon Gropius (1916-1935), according to a reference by Alma in her memoir Mein Leben. Harald Tauber was Susi's husband. Susi and Harald were both actors at the time of the correspondence. From the description of Correspondence to Alma Mahler, 1940-1948. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155863639 ...

S.-Fischer-Verlag

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sz08g6 (corporateBody)

Gottfried Bermann Fischer became Franz Werfel's publisher in 1938. Bermann-Fischer Verlag and Bermann-Fischer/Querido Verlag were publishing enterprises established by Bermann Fischer during his exile from Germany and in the immediate postwar period; they were eventually superceded by S. Fischer Verlag, which Bermann Fischer reestablished in Germany in 1950. S. Fischer Verlag subsequently presided over the German publishing rights to Werfel's works. Frisch held an editorial position at Bermann-F...

Huebsch, B. W. (Benjamin W.), 1876-1964

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h996jn (person)

Publisher. From the description of Reminiscences of Ben W. Huebsch : oral history, 1955. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309740245 From the description of B. W. Huebsch papers, 1893-1964. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70981210 American publisher. From the description of B. W. Huebsch records, 1909-1963. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 496102541 Bi...

Arlt, Gusti.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w603674t (person)

Hirsch, Rudolf, 1906-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bv7js4 (person)

Hirsch was the Associate Director of Libraries at the University of Pennsylvania; Chase was an attorney with the firm Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon, based in New York City. From the description of Correspondence to Adolf Klarmann, 1966. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155863471 ...

Levine, Meyer.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fr7c87 (person)

Gebauer, Agnes Ida, 1895-1977.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x350dh (person)

Agnes Ida Gebauer, known familiarly as "Schulli," was a nurse first hired by Alma Mahler in 1920 to care for her daughter Manon; Gebauer remained in Alma's service for many years and later returned to care for her during the last several years of her life, in New York, until Alma's death in 1964. Gebauer's letters are sometimes signed "Schulli" or "Ida" and in later communications several times "Ida Wagner." The death announcement sent by her family gives her name as Agnes Ida Wagner. Isolde Kla...

Arlt, Gustave O. (Gustave Otto), 1895-1986

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nm0w88 (person)

Zohn, Harry

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rn6kmk (person)

Harry Zohn was Professor of German at Brandeis University and a scholar of Austrian and Jewish literature of the 20th century. From the description of Harry Zohn papers, 1897-2001. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612795719 ...

Koretz, Paul 1885-1980

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68c9xjv (person)

Klarmann, Isolde.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6st7rm2 (person)

Rose, Alison

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c89s72 (person)

Klarmann, Adolf D. (Adolf Donald), 1904-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kh8hgs (person)

Agnes Ida Gebauer was a nurse employed by Alma Mahler; Gebauer writes to Klarmann on Alma's behalf. Isolde Klarmann was the wife of Adolf Klarmann; Ali Rosé was the wife of Wolfgang Rosé, a nephew of Alma Mahler (Wolfgang was the son of Gustav Mahler's sister Emma and Eduard Rosé, a cellist and the brother of Arnold Rosé). Harry Zohn was a professor of German and the editor of a German reader published by Henry Holt & Co; he corresponded with Alma Mahler and Adolf Klarmann about the incl...

Rogers, Saul E.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mw9zw1 (person)

Rogers was an attorney with an office in New York City. In the 1920s he had been a vice-president in the theater division at Fox Film Corporation, and he apparently still had some relationship to the film industry. From the description of Correspondence with Adolf Klarmann, 1948. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155865071 ...