Sachs, Nelly

including: one important typed letter signed to Christoph Graf von Schwerin, with four enclosed typed pages of her work; nine autograph letters signed, and one typed letter signed, to the artist Carlotta Jönsson; four autograph letters signed, and five typed letters signed, to the translator Jo Hilda Jordan; eight autograph letters signed, and one inscribed Christmas card signed, to the Zweibrücken director of horticulture Oskar Scheerer; two autograph letters signed to Sonja Rinn; one autograph letter signed to Dr. Hans Rudolf Hilty; one autograph letter signed to Gunnar Josephson; together with: an autograph manuscript of the poem "Erlöste aus Schlaf", signed and inscribed to the Göttingen physician Gerhard Bonhoff; Sachs's typescript of the unpublished poem "Kirchhof am Meer" and her typescript of an early version of the poem "Was stieg aus deines Leibes weißen Blättern"; and her typescripts of the poems "Abraham der Engel", "In einer Landschaft aus Musik", "Ein schwarzer Jochanaan" and "Wahnsinnige Schwester auf den schiefen Blitzen der Erleuchtung tanzend"

the letters outlining her current and future work, concerning her situation in exile, referring to many of her works, including Und niemand weiß weiter, Nachtwache, Der magische Tänzer, Simson fällt durch Jahrtausende, Versteckspiel mit Emanuel, the collected poems, the play Eli, the verse dramas Spüren [i.e. Zeichen] im Sand, commenting on the drama Die Nachtwache, which she characterizes as a kind of nightmare, and on the highly personal prose work Briefe aus der Mitternacht, which she notes is for her alone, a secret, tentative search for the light, explaining how her poems were written under the blackest of circumstances, reporting on the enthusiastic reception in 1957 of Und niemand weiß weiter, discussing her health, mentioning English, French and Italian translations of her work, describing her years in hospital, noting her reactions to Jönsson's painting ("Friedhof am Meer"), and stating that she has tried to express her thoughts about it in the enclosed poem, also mentioning André Malraux ("...Also hat er doch für unser Leiden ein wirkliches Gefühl gezeigt..."), Stephen Spender, Dylan Thomas, Shirley Kaufmann, and others, the correspondence touching also on the Nobel Prize, love, friendship, Sweden, her mother, the comfort of flowers, her nomination as a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, and other matters



...Dies sind alles Versuche die mich an die Hand nehmen und fortführen. Dann für mich selbst Auszeichnungen aus eigenen Jahren "Briefe aus der Mitternacht" dies aber nur für mich, ein geheimes Tasten nach Licht...Ich finde kaum Worte und bin gänzlich fassungslos über die Resonanz, die diese Gedichte bei den neuen Dichter- und Kritiker-Generation dort gefunden hat. Die Briefe strömen nur herein. So durfte ich auf diese Art für unser Volk wirken, wie glücklich bin ich darüber...Verwandschaft mit Dylan Thomas ist nun öfter erwähnt worden, so hab ich mir einige Übersetzungen im Deutschen verschafft und es mag schon möglich sein, dass es vor allem bei uns eine Heute nicht so oft ausgedrückte Art von Extase nicht wie bei uns Beiden. Ich habe zum Teil meine Gedichte unter tief-schwarzen Umständen geschrieben an der Grenze zur Nacht...



around 50 pages in all, various sizes, some letters on correspondence cards or postcards, some on airmail paper, one on the reverse of a printed Christmas card of 1965 containing the first printing of the poem beginning "Das Meer sammelt Augenblicke", 14 autograph envelopes and one typed with autograph annotations, Stockholm, Vällingby, Bromma and elsewhere, 1940-1968, staining to a few envelopes, a few small tears, some creasing; together with: typed carbons of seven letters to Sachs by Jo Hilda Jordan, 1966-1968, 13 pages; photographs of Sachs's letter to Jönsson of 30 June 1966; a photocopy of an unrecorded letter by Sachs to an unidentified addressee ("Geliebtes Elslein"), dated 14 April 1948; a printed letter in German and Swedish responding to the congratulations of her friends on being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1966); a copy of Hortulus (vol. 9, October 1959), inscribed to Hermann Kasack; a copy of the second edition (1966) of the collection of poems Und Niemand weiß weiter; a reproduction of a manuscript of her poem "Diese Kette von Rätseln", signed and inscribed to Sonja Rinn; a printed visiting card inscribed by Sachs for Irmgard Bonhoff on the death of her husband; and a black-and-white photograph of Sachs, signed and inscribed ("Nelly Sachs...Bergsundstrand 23 Stockholm d. 16.3.65"), 16.5 x 13.2cm 

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A remarkable collection of correspondence and poems by the poet Nelly Sachs (1891-1970). One of the most significant and individual voices in twentieth-century German literature, Sachs was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1966. A friend of Paul Celan, she gave unforgettable, lyrical expression to the tragedy of the Jews during the Holocaust.

Included among these varied letters is an important, unpublished letter to Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Paul Celan's longtime secretary and later co-founder of Suhrkamp Verlag, under whose impressum all Sachs's poetry after 1956 would be published. Of especial interest, too, are Sachs's own typed copies of some of her poems, including an early version of "Was stieg aus deines Leibes weißen Blättern" from the first of her poetry collections to be published in West Germany, the celebrated Niemand weiß weiter (1957): this version diverges considerably from the published form of the poem.