Rights sold to:
For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
»A breach into the darkness of time!« / »Eine Bresche ins Dunkel der Zeit!«
Letters 1916 - 1923
Edited by Volker Michels
Possibly no other time span saw so many changes in the life of the poet than the years between 1916 and 1923. Even though Hermann Hesse had already left the Germany of the last Emperor for good in 1912, he was still a citizen of this country at war and had to expect his draft to the front at any time. He escaped this fate by the founding of a relief centre for German prisoners of war in Bern and providing them with good books, but in order to do so, he had so sacrifice his poetic...
Read more
Possibly no other time span saw so many changes in the life of the poet than the years between 1916 and 1923. Even though Hermann Hesse had already left the Germany of the last Emperor for good in 1912, he was still a citizen of this country at war and had to expect his draft to the front at any time. He escaped this fate by the founding of a relief centre for German prisoners of war in Bern and providing them with good books, but in order to do so, he had so sacrifice his poetic production almost entirely up until 1919.
These letters illustrate the way in which he managed to master the resulting crises by the aid of psychoanalysis, a pseudonym for his exhortations for international reconciliation, the explosive creation of Demian and his first attempts at painting. At the same time, they show the failure of his first marriage as a consequence thereof, as well as the fresh start in Ticino as an Expressionist painter and author of the dramatic Klingsor-novellas and Siddhartha, the Indian legend with which he overcame his eurocentrism.
2015, 669 pages
Persons
Hermann Hesse
Author
Hermann Hesse, born in Calw/Württemberg in 1877, died in Montagnola near Lugano, Italy, in August 1962. After an apprenticeship to become a bookseller, he began to work as a freelance author in 1904. In 1946, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and in 1955 the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. He is one of the most famous German authors of the 20th century.
Hermann Hesse
Author
Hermann Hesse, born in Calw/Württemberg in 1877, died in Montagnola near Lugano, Italy, in August 1962. After an apprenticeship to become a...
© Gret Widmann
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Latest first
Year of Publication: 2024
Volker MichelsYear of Publication: 2024
»It’s Up to the Individual«
Hermann Hesse’s efforts to defy the destructive consequences of the ideas that prevailed in the era in which he lived shaped the author’s life and work in the most diverse ways. This succinct, poignant life portrait illustrates how Hesse’s search for forward-looking alternatives was reflected both in his biography and writings. It also looks at the rancour that his constructive worldview inspired...
Year of Publication: 2024
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2024
Memories of Hans
In order to make the loss of those he had been closest to more bearable, Hermann Hesse had the habit of writing down his memories of the deceased as soon as he received news of their passing, right when the pain was most present. For Hesse, one of the most important functions of literature was preserving the ephemeral in words, conjuring up what was through the most precise depictions. These...
Year of Publication: 2023
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2023
»Surrounded by the Flutters of Western and Eastern Lures«
»Surrounded by the Flutters of Western and Eastern Lures« ‒ the title of this volume of correspondence refers to the wooing of both West and East German cultural institutions and interest groups that set in after Hesse had been awarded the Nobel Prize as well as other distinctions. Hesse was only too aware that these attempts at appropriation in both West and East were intended to...
Year of Publication: 2023
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2023
»My Dear Brüdi!«
Brüdi – this was the family’s nickname for Martin, Hermann Hesse’s youngest son.
When Hermann Hesse left his family in April 1919 to lead an unattached life in Ticino on the southern side of the Alps, his three sons were sent to live with foster families or to a children’s home. A shock especially for Martin, just seven years old. Like Hesse’s first...
Year of Publication: 2022
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2022
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life was first published in the Insel-Bücherei series in 1934. Hermann Hesse himself selected the poems; only those that met his own criteria of longevity and quality...
Rights sold to:
For further information regarding the rights status of the poems in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager >>
Year of Publication: 2021
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2021
»The Unbearable Must Be Heard«
The extent to which Hermann Hesse found himself in the limelight in the post-war years was greater than ever before: after winning the Nobel Prize, the »representative of a better...
Rights sold to:
For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2021
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2021
Pictor's Metamorphoses
Pictor's Metamorphoses is one of Hesse’s most touching love stories, a cheerful fairy tale about overcoming loneliness and being saved by love. He wrote it in the autumn of 1922...
Rights sold to:
Rights to the illustrations available.
Text rights have already been sold in the following languages / territories: English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights (Edhasa), Russia (Text), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Bestbolso), Portuguese rights (Dom Quixote), Italy (Einaudi), Bulgaria (Riva), Romania (RAO), Estonia (Hea Lugu Oü), Turkey (Can), Greece (Kastaniotis), Georgia (Bakur Sulakauri)
Text has previously been published in the respective language / territory, rights available again: Italy (Equilibri, including manuscript and illustrations), Netherlands (Sirius en Siderius), Denmark (Batzer & Co.), Norway (Solum), Finland (Gummerus), Vietnam (Danang), Slovakia (Slovensky Spisovatel), Hungary (Cartafilus), Latvia (Atena), Iran (Qoqnoos)
Text rights have already been sold in the following languages / territories: English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights (Edhasa), Russia (Text), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Bestbolso), Portuguese rights (Dom Quixote), Italy (Einaudi), Bulgaria (Riva), Romania (RAO), Estonia (Hea Lugu Oü), Turkey (Can), Greece (Kastaniotis), Georgia (Bakur Sulakauri)
Text has previously been published in the respective language / territory, rights available again: Italy (Equilibri, including manuscript and illustrations), Netherlands (Sirius en Siderius), Denmark (Batzer & Co.), Norway (Solum), Finland (Gummerus), Vietnam (Danang), Slovakia (Slovensky Spisovatel), Hungary (Cartafilus), Latvia (Atena), Iran (Qoqnoos)
Year of Publication: 2020
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2020
»›Great Times‹ Leave Behind Great Piles of Rubble«
This volume comprising more than 500 letters sets in few months after the begin of World War II. These letters depict in many dramatic episodes the extent to which Hermann Hesse and his German...
Rights sold to:
For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2019
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2019
»Trusting That We Won't Lose One Another«
It’s not easy being the son of a famous father. More so if that father is often absent and the family breaks apart. This correspondence, containing almost 300 hitherto unpublished letters,...
Rights sold to:
For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2019
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2019
At Christmas Time
»My childhood days I think of now, / A long-forgotten fairy tale sound awakens: / Bells ring and on silver shoes / The Christkind walks though the white night.« It’s mainly childhood...
Rights sold to:
Netherlands (Aspekt), Hungary (Helikon)
Domestic rights sales: German audiobook (DAV)
Year of Publication: 2019
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2019
The Magic of Colours
At the age of 40, in the middle of World War I, Hermann Hesse started to paint. To him it was an »outlet, so as to be able to bear life even in the direst of times« and to gain some distance from...
Rights sold to:
Russia (Text)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Croatia (Zagrebacka Naklada)
Year of Publication: 2016
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2016
»I’m a person of becoming and of change«
The years between 1924 and 1932 once more show Hermann Hesse to be »a person of becoming and of change«. For him, they begin with the experiment of a new (yet short-lived) marriage. The effects of...
Rights sold to:
For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2016
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2016
Discover Yourself!
Self-determination instead of conformation, obstinacy instead of submission – this is the common thread that weaves through all of Hermann Hesse’s works. To him, every person’s disposition...
Rights sold to:
Turkey (Profil)
Year of Publication: 2014
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2014
Trees
To Hermann Hesse, trees are symbols that coalesce with memories, symbols of evanescence and rebirth, but also of »all growth, all libidinal, natural life, all insouciance and proliferous...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Kales Press), Italy (Ugo Guanda), Korea (Changbi), Japan (Asahi), Turkey (Kolektif)
Year of Publication: 2013
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2013
»To make something beautiful out of the sad«
This volume assembles the most important of Hermann Hesse’s letters in the years between 1905 and 1914. They show the by now married writer in the second and third decade of his life, at Lake...
Rights sold to:
For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2012
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2012
»I am not and will not be obedient!«
This collection of Hermann Hesse’s brilliant early letters conveys the both dramatic and fascinating journey full of obstacles of a gifted missionary’s son, destined for a theological career,...
Rights sold to:
For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2011
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2011
Butterflies
»I have always had a connection with butterflies and other fleeting and ephemeral beauties, while I have never succeeded in maintaining permanent, committed and so-called solid relationships,«...
Rights sold to:
non-exclusive English world rights (Kales Press), Korea (Moonye)
Year of Publication: 1943
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 1943
The Glass Bead Game
For Hermann Hesse, there is no progress without the realisation of utopias, and therefore he conceived the model of an educational system informed by order, reason and moderation in the...
Rights sold to:
USA & Canada (Henry Holt; audio book rights: Blackstone; computer game rights: Astrosophy), UK & Commonwealth (Vintage), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Record), Portuguese rights (Leya), France (Calmann-Lévy), Italy (Mondadori), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Poland (Media Rodzina), Czech Republic (Argo), Hungary (Helikon), Bulgaria (Riva), Romania (RAO), Lithuania (Baltos Lankos), Croatia (Zagrebacka Naklada), Serbia (Narodna Knjiga), Bosnia (Hercegovina Izdavastvo), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Dioptra), Albania (Dukagjini), Montenegro (Narodna Knjiga), Ukraine (Folio), Georgia (Sulakauri), Armenia (Antares), Azerbaijan (Parlaq Imzalar), India (Malayalam, Megha Books)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Bonniers), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Finland (Kirjaythymä Oy), Slovakia (Slovensky Spisovatel), Estonia (Tänapäev), Latvia (Mediasat), Slovenia (Cankarjeva Zalozba), Macedonia (Magor)
Year of Publication: 1930
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 1930
Narcissus and Goldmund
Two primal principes, inextricably linked: The novice Narcissus, the »wunderkind«, a thinker and ascetic devoted to scholarly and spiritual pursuits, befriends the young student Goldmund at the...
Rights sold to:
US (FSG; Audiobook edition: Blackstone), UK (Peter Owen), Spain (Edhasa), Latin America (Trade / Hardcover edition: Edhasa; Pocketbook edition: RHM), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Editora Record), Portuguese rights (Dom Quixote), France (Calmann-Lévy), Italy (Mondadori), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Poland (Media Rodzina), Czech Republic (Argo), Slovakia (Petrus), Hungary (Helikon), Bulgaria (Riva), Romania (RAO), Lithuania (Trigrama), Serbia (Narodna), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Kastaniotis), Albania (Dukagjini), Ukraine (Folio), Georgia (Sulakauri), Armenia (Antares), Israel (Schocken)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Catalan rights (Empuries/Grup 62), Arabic world rights (Al Kamel), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Alba), Finland (Gummerus), Estonia (Monokkel), Latvia (Atena), Croatia (Zagrebačka), Slovenia (Sanje), India (Hindi; IBH Prakashana), India (Bengali; Kapa Ayanta)
Year of Publication: 1927
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 1927
Steppenwolf
»At first sight Harry Haller seems a respectable, educated man. In reality he is the Steppenwolf: wild, strange, alienated from society and repulsed by the modern age. But as he is drawn...
Rights sold to:
USA & Canada (Henry Holt; audiobook rights: Blackstone Audio; Illustrated hardcover edition: Folio Society), UK & Commonwealth (Penguin Books), Spain (Hardcover: Edhasa), Spanish world rights (Paperback: Alianza), Latin America (Trade edition: Sudamericana), Catalan rights (Trade edition: Sureda; pocketbook edition: Edicions 62), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Editora Record), Portuguese rights (Dom Quixote), France (Calmann-Levy; Facsimile edition: Saints Peres), Italy (Mondadori), Denmark (Gyldendal; audiobook rights: Bechs), Sweden (Bonniers), Norway audiobook rights (Bechs), Vietnam (Nha Nam), Poland (Media Rodzina), Czech Republic (Argo), Slovak Republic (Petrus), Hungary (Helikon), Bulgaria (Storyside), Romania (RAO), Latvia (Sia Jumava), Lithuania (Alma Littera; digital audiobook rights: Audioteka), Croatia (Zagrebacka Naklada), Serbia (Narodna Knjiga), Bosnia (Hercegovina Izdavaštvo), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Minoas), North Macedonia (Tri), Albania / Kosovo (Dukagjini), Montenegro (Narodna Knjiga), Ukraine (Folio), Georgia (Sulakauri), Armenia (Antares), Azerbaijan (Parlaq Imzalar), India (Malayalam: Megha Books), Israel (Schocken), Esperanto (Eldonejo Tata)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Basque rights (Elkarlanean), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Finland (Söderström), Estonia (Tänapäev)
DISCOVER
Just published