»If anyone has been hoping for just one last undiscovered drama by Thomas Bernhard, here it is. Its title is Correspondence, its birth spanning from 1961 to Bernhard's death in 1989.« Die Zeit

The dramatic roster: an author who considers discord with his environment and unfettered self-interest necessary preconditions for writing and creative inspiration, and a publisher who has to provide him with the material preconditions for work and well-being while trying shield the publishing house from financial harm with the persuasiveness of his arguments. Having not received any feedback about his three poetry books but persuaded by his own phenomenal ability as a writer, Thomas Bernhard penned a letter to Siegfried Unself in October 1961, when he was 30 years old: »A couple of days ago, I sent a manuscript to your publishing house. I don’t know you, only a few people whom you know. But I’m going it alone.«

Although Suhrkamp rejected the manuscript, after the 1963 publication of Bernhard’s first novel Frost, the go-it-aloner and the publisher took the road together that led the author to a place in world literature.

In their approximately 500 letters a unique two-man act develops: Sometimes it is a tragedy, when, for instance Bernhard lets loose one of his insulting tirades, for which he is well-known in his writing, on the publisher who, for his part, put his money on the persuasiveness of the argument. Then Bernhard puts on a performance with Unseld as hero: in 1973, he wrote, »with great attentiveness, and with all possibilities, I gladly go with you.« In 1984, faced with the confiscation of Holzfällen they both acted as defenders of literature in a villainous play staged by others.

This dynamic dominates the relationship drama: The author makes non-negotiable demands concerning his work and himself. The publisher, for his part, knows that especially with Bernhard, inconsiderate self-centeredness is an inevitable precondition for productivity. Until now, the existence of such a dramatic exchange between author and publisher, in which everything is at stake with every line, was not known to the public.

Old Masters