Mann, Thomas

about his writing, reporting his commission from the publishers Fischer to write a long prose work, specifying the mid-nineteenth-century milieu to be treated in Buddenbrooks, its length and plans to finish it, AND FINALLY GIVING GRAUTOFF A LONG ANALYSIS OF ITS GERMANIC AND WAGNERIAN NATURE, discussing Goethe (with quotations of "Alles Vergängliche", from Faust), Shakespeare (Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet), Wagner (Tristan und Isolde), Turgenev, Nietzsche, his brother Hermann, Balzac, Dehmel, Fontane and many other writers, the publishers Fischer, the journals Simplicissimus and Neue Deutsche Rundschau, and reporting his travels in Italy, mainly Rome during the years 1895 to 1897; the collection also includes two autograph poems by Mann, 'Weihnacht' ("O festlich Sternenzelt!"), and, in a letter of 1898, the apparently newly-composed poem 'Nur Eins' ("Wir, denen Gott den trüben Sinn gegeben"), together with a transcription from the love duet in Tristan und Isolde ("Bricht mein Blick sich..."), and from Romeo and Juliet ("Komm, Nacht...Verhülle mit dem schwarzen Mantel mir"), poems by August von Platen and others

92 items, c.260 pages in all, mainly 8vo, autograph address panels to the postcards, some on Mann's printed stationery, with a few unpublished greetings cards, mainly 1894-1901, together with letters to Erna Grautoff and Karl Federn, mainly Munich and Rome and a few items from Naples, Unterach, Riva del Garda, Dresden, Bad Tölz, Oberammergau and Paris, September 1894-7 July 1925, about twelve letters incomplete (mostly undated letters of c.1895-1896), the first two letters with sections cut away, occasional dust-marking and splitting at folds, each letter carefully annotated in pencil by the Austrian National Library (July 1938) and some also with editorial dating (c.1975) 

The letters were purchased by Kurt Maschler from Otto Grautoff's widow Erna in Paris in 1937. He took them to Vienna, but was forced to flee Austria in March 1938, leaving behind his entire library. The Gestapo seized the letters and put them in the Austrian National Library, where they were carefully numbered and incorporated. Kurt Maschler went back to Vienna shortly after the war to reclaim his property from the Library.

T. Mann, Briefe an Otto Grautoff 1894-1901 und Ida Boy-Ed 1903-1928, edited by Peter de Mendelssohn (1975)

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 BY FAR THE LARGEST AND MOST IMPORTANT SERIES OF LETTERS BY THOMAS MANN TO HAVE BEEN OFFERED FOR SALE AT AUCTION.

The letters come from the early part of Mann's life, mostly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, for which few primary manuscript sources exist.  The other important early biographical sources have been destroyed or lost: Mann himself reports burning the diary of his youth here, in his letter of 17 February 1896, and the many letters he must have written to his brother Hermann must be counted as lost.  Of his diaries, only the volume from 1933 apparently survives.

Many of these letters are substantial, up to twelve pages in length: other collections of letters by Thomas Mann sold at auction have been relatively brief: three lots comprising 52 items (70 pages), 30 items (40 pages) and 25 items (59 pages) respectively, all dating from the last third of his life, 1924-1955. We have traced only two letters by Mann from before 1900 at auction, one also dealing with Buddenbrooks.

These letters document Mann's first few years away from his native Lübeck, principally in Munich and his first Italian journey with Hermann. They are written to his compatriot Otto Grautoff (1876-1937), writer and son of an impoverished bookseller, and cover the period up to the publication of Mann's first novel Buddenbrooks, which deals with the decline of the merchant classes in Lübeck. These letters are the most important source we have for the composition of the novel, in which Grautoff himself appears as Kai, Graf Mölln. Mann reports beginning “ein größeres, zusammenhängendes Prosawerk” in a letter from Palestrina in August 1898, and gives his first description of the novel as Buddenbrooks in a letter of 25 October 1898, reporting the influence of Turgenev ("...Es melden sich immer wieder neue Schwierigkeiten, und hie and da sind sogar historische Studien nothwendig, denn ich stecke noch in den 50ger Jahren: Der Roman splielt von 35 bis 77. Aber ich hoffe das Buch, das 5 bis 600 Druckseiten bekommt bis zum nächsten Jahre glücklich zu beenden…").

Finally, Mann provided Grautoff with his own remarkable analysis of Buddenbrooks, emphasizing its essentially Germanic themes of Music and Philosophy and its use of Wagnerian leitmotifs, urging him to stress these points in Grautoff's eventual reviews of it in the Münchener Neueste Nachrichten (1901) and the Hamburg journal Der Lotse (1902):

"...Ein paar Winke noch, Buddenbrooks betreffend.  Im Lootsen sowohl wie in den Neuesten betone, bitte, den deutschen Charakter des Buches.  Als zwei echt deutsche Ingredienzen, die wenigstens im II. Bande (der wohl überhaupt der bedeutendere sei) stark hervorträten, nenne Musik und Philosophie…im ganzen Habitus (geistig, gesellschaftlich) und schon dem Gegenstande nach echt deutsch: schon im Verhältnis zwischen den Vätern und den Söhnen in den verschiedenen Generationen der Familie….Es sei dem Verf. gelungen, den epischen Ton vortrefflich festzuhalten.  Die eminent epische Wirkunde des Leitmotivs. Das Wagnerische in der Wirkung dieser wörtlichen Rückbezeihung über weite Strecken hin, in Wechsel der Generationen.  Die Verbindung eines stark dramatischen Elementes mit dem epischen…"

One of the recurring themes in these letters is Thomas Mann’s engagement with the works of Shakespeare and Wagner, as expressed in a letter written a week before reporting the completion of Buddenbrooks ("...Der “Hamlet” von gestern Abend liegt mir noch in allen Nerven, Sinnen, Gedanken, Gliedern.  Höchstens an Wagner-abenden habe ich sonst einen so tiefen Eindruck aus dem Theater mit fortgenommen.  Ich bin so persönlich berührt und getroffen wie wohl noch [nie] von der Bühne aus…) [letter of 11 August 1900; a month later Mann invited Grautoff to attend Tristan und Isolde in the theatre it had been first performed, transcribing part of the Act 2 love duet].

Peter de Mendelssohn's edition (1975) includes the letters up to 1901, except for one. The following letters and postcards are unpublished: 21 November 1900, 18 May 1906, 28 June 1906 (Oberammergau), 9 December 1912, 15 December 1912, 29 September 1913 (Paris), 22 April 1914, 11 June 1914 (Paris), 5 February 1925, 17 February 1925, and 24 February 1925; a postcard from Rome, 6 June 1897, published by de Mendelssohn, is absent from the collection.