F. Werfel, Four autograph poems from 'Ein Totenpsalter', c. 1935 or later

Werfel, Franz

Autograph manuscript of four poems from the collection 'Ein Totenpsalter', DIVERGING IN PLACES FROM THE PUBLISHED TEXT

comprising the poems 'Mann und Selbstmörderin', 'Litanei von den Zimmern der Verstorbenen', 'Kleines verlassenes Kurtheater im Herbst', and 'Elegie an einen Jugendgenossen', a fair-copy manuscript, written in black ink, with autograph titles provided with pink-crayon borders, WITH A FEW PROBABLY AUTOGRAPH CORRECTIONS AND ALTERATIONS IN INK, PINK CRAYON AND PENCIL

...Ich öffne ein ältliches Buch,

Da zerbrechen die Zeilen und knicken.

Rot funkelt des Zierglases Fluch,

Und die Uhr hetzt mit stichelndem Ticken...

7 leaves, 4to (28.3 x 22.5cm), written on rectos only, gatherings strengthened, on guards, modern half vellum, gilt lettering to upper cover ('Franz Werfel / Vier Gedichte'), small tear to front free endpaper

Franz Werfel (1890-1845) was one of the founders of the expressionist movement in German literature. His eventful life included marriage to Gustav Mahler's widow, Alma, in 1929, and a dramatic escape from the Nazis, to America, in 1940. He is perhaps best known for his novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1933), whose subject was the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

The four poems contained here come from the twenty-poem collection 'Ein Totenpsalter', published in the 1935 volume Schlafen und Erwachen. THE PRESENT AUTOGRAPH CONTAINS A NUMBER OF SIGNIFICANT TEXTUAL DIVERGENCES FROM THE PUBLISHED EDITION; one such divergence concerns, for example, the title of the last poem - 'Elegie an einen Jugendgefährten' in the 1935 print.

A nearly complete manuscript of Schlafen und Erwachen from around the time of publication is held among the Mahler-Werfel Papers in the Kislak Center for Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania. A typescript carbon of 'Ein Totenpsalter' is recorded among the collection of Werfel's papers in the Department of Special Collections, UCLA Library.