Canetti, Elias

comprising nine sections ("Zur Untersuchung des Befehls"; "Sklaverei"; "Masse und Hinrichtungen"; "Ruhm, Reichtum und Macht"; "Panik"; "Das Feuer als Massen-Symbol"; "Das Meer als Massen-Symbol"; "Zur massenpsychologischen Untersuchung des Buddhismus"; "Zur These der nationalen Massen-Symbole"), the last incomplete, with an autograph title on the verso of the front free endpaper ("Versuch über Masse und Macht von Lias Canetti"), written in blue/black ink, with borders for the title and division headings in blue and red crayon, containing a few deletions and corrections

...Der Buddhismus, dessen psychologische Einsicht und Tiefe bemerkenswert ist, hat sich in einem Punkte völlige Naivität bewahrt. Er handelt von allen Instinkten, die den Menschen belohnen [?] und seine Lebensgier steigen; er versucht, die Tatsache der Lebensbefangenheit des Menschen aus simpelsten Wurzeln abzuleiten und das System, das sich aus ihrer Verflechtung ergibt, Schritt für Schritt darzustellen...



52 pages, plus blanks, 4to (c. 30 x 23cm), red edges, stationer's label ("Theyer & Hardtmuth...") to lower pastedown, cloth-covered boards, red morocco edging, no place or date [Vienna, before 1938?], last leaf and free endpaper becoming detached, light wear to covers

Canetti, E. The Human Province (New York, 1978; translation by Joachim Neugroschel); ---Masse und Macht (Hamburg, 1960)

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT EARLY MANUSCRIPT DRAFT FOR THE WORK CANETTI HIMSELF CONSIDERED HIS MASTERPIECE, AND WHICH, MORE THAN ANY OTHER, WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR EARNING HIM THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE IN 1981. 

APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED, IT DIVERGES SUBSTANTIALLY FROM THE TEXT OF THE FINAL PRINTED FORM. 

Canetti's great study of the dynamics of crowds and the reasons why crowds obey leaders was first published in 1960 by Claasen Verlag, Hamburg, and two years later in English translation as Crowds and Power. The fruits of nigh-on thirty-five years' work it analyses the psychological and social forces treated imaginatively in Canetti's earlier fiction work Die Blendung (published in English translation as Auto da Fé). The central position the work occupied in the author's creative life is revealed in a diary entry from 1959:

...Yesterday, the manuscript of Crowds and Power went off to Hamburg. In 1925, thirty-four years ago, I had my first thought about a book on the crowd...My entire adult life was filled with this book; but since settling in England, that is, for the past twenty years, I have worked on scarcely anything else...What can I say? I had to do what I have done. It was a compulsion I will never understand...Now I can tell myself I have succeeded in grabbing this century by the throat...

The 1960 publication is made up of twelve sections (entitled "The Crowd", "The Pack", "The Pack and Religion" etc.), divided in all in to 106 subsections. THE PRESENT MANUSCRIPT CONTAINS EARLY VERSIONS OF EIGHT SUCH SUBSECTIONS, all differing to a greater or lesser degree from the published form; a ninth subsection, on Buddhism ("Zur massenpsychologischen Untersuchung des Buddhismus"), is entirely lacking in the published text. It is possible that the manuscript even predates the writer's flight from Vienna to London in 1938, given the presence of a label from a Viennese stationer's on the lower pastedown.

We understand that the present manuscript was a gift to the current owner from the Austrian painter Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996), with whom Canetti was romantically involved following his arrival in London. It is probable that Canetti presented the manuscript to Motesiczky as a token of gratitude for her sustained moral and financial support from the 1940s onwards (parts of Masse und Macht were in fact written in Motesiczky's house in West Hampstead). The writer and painter were close companions in the 1940s onwards, although a certain cooling in relations occurred in 1973 following Motesiczky's discovery that Canetti had fathered a child with the restorer Herta Buschor, leading the artist to depict him as a copulating rodent in Nude with rat and books.