Beschreibung:

HESSE, Hermann (1877-1962). A series of 18 autograph letters signed, 74 typed letters signed, 4 autograph notes signed, 49 autograph postcards signed (one signed as 'Emil Sinclair'), and 4 typed postcards signed to Josef Englert, n.d. [May 1920] - [4 August 1955], 36 of the letters and postcards illustrated with drawings in watercolour or pen and ink by Hesse, including 6 typescript poems (of which 3 signed and illustrated with watercolours), a few letters on verso of paper with printed headings of Vivos Voco , Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen-Fürsorge and others, altogether approximately 100 pages, various sizes, in autograph, and 134 pages, various sizes, typescript , 85 envelopes, together with 4 unsigned drawings and seven woodcuts, presumably by Hesse, and related letters and poems by Georg Reinhart, Ninon Hesse and others, a copy of Goethe, Dreißig Gedichte ausgewählt und eingeleitet von Hermann Hesse , Zürich, 1932, inscribed 'Den Lieben Freunden' and signed by Hesse, and other printed items. Provenance : Josef Englert; and by descent. AN EXTENSIVE CORRESPONDENCE WITH ONE OF HESSE'S CLOSEST FRIENDS AND PATRONS The correspondence begins shortly after Hesse's move to Montagnola (southern Switzerland) as an escape from the collapse of his first marriage, and ends not long before Englert's death. The range of subject matter is broad, covering Hesse's personal life, in the difficulties of his relationships and of his health and also in its private pleasures - gardening, skiing, painting, Hesse's reading and appreciation of music and the arts, and above all their circle of mutual friends; there is extensive commentary on literary activities in the years of Siddhartha , Klingsors letzter Sommer , Steppenwolf , Narziss und Goldmund , Die Morgenlandfahrt and Das Glasperlenspiel ; and commentary on the political situation, both in the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s, and in the devastation of the post-War German world. The earliest letters are much concerned with the difficulties ensuing upon the breakdown of Hesse's first marriage. Perhaps the earliest (n.d., May 1920) reflects with wonder on Hesse's responsibilites as a father: 'Das jetzt wieder im Stübchen neben mir ein kleiner Mensch schläft, mein Kind, das ich liebe u. für das ich verantwortlich bin, ist mir wieder ein neues, tiefes Gefühl'. As early as 1921, too, Hesse is writing of the prospect of remarriage with Ruth Wenger - 'die weit schwerere Frage der etwaigen Wiederverheiratung ... Denn Frl W. von Carona (bitte niemand ein Wort sagen!) wartet wohl darauf'. A number of letters refer to horoscopes prepared by Englert for Hesse and Ruth in advance of this ill-fated match. Hesse's health and spirits are a constant preoccupation, and his constant struggles with ailments (in particular of the eyes and tearducts) and depression are a theme - 'mein ganzes Leben ist Stagnation und heimliche Qual', 'Ich bin in einer langdauernden sehr tiefen Kurve von Uebelbefinden und Depression', he confides that 'ich ... eine seelische Kreise durchlebe, seit Jahren, und daß ich aus ihr keinen andern Ausweg sehe als den, den der Tod einst bringen wird' - though this is often explicitly related to the consolations of creativity: 'Etwas schaffen, auch inmitten von Schmerzen, ist immer Glück, und es scheint die einzige Art von Glück, für die ich begabt bin'; 'was mir mein Leben trotzdem schön, bunt und reich gemacht hat, ... meine Arbeit, d.h., ... die Freude des Produzierens'. The letters however often demonstrate disenchantment with the work of a writer - 'Wenn mir nur aus der Literatur der Rückzug in ein edleres Gewerbe möglich wäre!' - and this is particularly pronounced during Hesse's struggles with writer's block during the 1930s. There is more positive news too: 'der Steppenwolf war, rein aüßerlicher Sensation wegen, ein "Erfolg" und brachte mir in einem Jahr mehr ein, als mir die Märchen, der Siddhartha, die Betrachtungen und die Lyrik, alle zusammen, je eingebracht haben'; 'Die Morgenlandf