In 1959, just after Uwe Johnson’s relocation to West berlin and the publication of his debut novel Speculations About Jakob, the correspondence and friendship between Johnson and Hans Magnus Enzensberger commences. Over the course of eight years they communicate about the situation of literature and politics and discuss the scopes of political activism. At the same time, however, the 161 documents stand testament to an exchange about the possibilities and limits of...
In 1959, just after Uwe Johnson’s relocation to West berlin and the publication of his debut novel Speculations About Jakob, the correspondence and friendship between Johnson and Hans Magnus Enzensberger commences. Over the course of eight years they communicate about the situation of literature and politics and discuss the scopes of political activism. At the same time, however, the 161 documents stand testament to an exchange about the possibilities and limits of friendship.
As early as October 1966, Uwe Johnson demands that they no longer »construct« their correspondence »towards future edition and provision for old age but for means of brutal communication.« The seemingly ordinary serves as a basis for fundamental observations and ultimately leads to a rift: The fact that Johnson offers his apartments in Berlin to Enzensberger’s first wife Dagrun and his brother Ulrich leads to aporias of trust, surety and responsibility. One year later even this arrangement is stretched to its limits – but leaves behind a correspondence in which neither party fails to deliver: leasr of all the hightly trenchant dialogue between two profoundly different characters. And their edition is now available.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger was born in Kaufbeuren in 1929. He died on November 24, 2022, aged 93, in Munich. As a poet, essayist, writer, biographer, editor and translator, he was one of the world’s most influential and internationally renowned German intellectuals.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger was born in Kaufbeuren in 1929. He died on November 24, 2022, aged 93, in Munich. As a poet, essayist, writer,...
Uwe Johnson was born in Kammin (today: Kamien Pomorski), Poland, in 1934 and died in Sheerness-on-Sea on February 22 or 23, 1984. His estate is kept at the Uwe Johnson Archive at the University of Rostock.
Uwe Johnson was born in Kammin (today: Kamien Pomorski), Poland, in 1934 and died in Sheerness-on-Sea on February 22 or 23, 1984. His estate is...
Babel! A word seemingly born from chaos in its alliterating, rolling urgency. The poet pulls several examples of how deception and self-deceit, misjudgements and failing routines determine...
Bengali rights (Parampara)
»How’s the confidence of the financial astrologers doing? What does the gibberish of the daily papers tell us? How much reality is contained in the mythical models of contemporary physics and cosmology? Towards which ultimate goal is our contemporaries’ pathological mobility drifting? What is the ubiquitous craze for abbreviations hiding? And down which garden path are the fine arts trying to...
For further information regarding the rights status of the poems in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager >>
Nature has treated people somewhat like a stepmother would. Other animals are stronger, can swim and fly better, give birth less awkwardly and do not need as much time to become adults. How can it be then that this weak creature came to be the strongest on earth? The answer, if you believe the author, has to do with the division of labour. Thanks to this trick every one of us, he believes,...
The hitherto unpublished and unknown correspondence between Ingeborg Bachmann and Hans Magnus Enzensberger allows one to relive how, after the Second World War, two of the most prominent writers in the German language chose to depict and regard the world, literature and the publishing industry, but also how they wished to present and be regarded themselves.
One was...
»It is hard to shake off one’s date of birth. M. drags his around with him, too.« The first twenty years of life are baggage that a person is forever stuck with. But...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard), Serbia (Laguna)
The 20th century was the heyday of writers who had survived state terror and purges with all the ethical and political ambivalences that this entailed. How did they manage to do that? Were they...
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Altamarea), France (Alma), Italy (Einaudi), Serbia (Laguna), Turkey (Iletisim)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club rights (Büchergilde Gutenberg)
Sweden (Faethon)
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Catalan rights (Edicions 62), France (Alma), Italy (Einaudi), Japan (Shobunsha)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)
In 1963 the author took his first trip to Russia and unexpectedly became a guest at Khrushchev's dacha in Gagra. The result was a detailed portrait of the man and the Soviet »Thaw«...
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Fonghong Books), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Todavia), France (Gallimard), Italy (Einaudi), Denmark (Gyldendal), Croatia (Disput), Greece (Hestia)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Malpaso)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag), German Entire Radio Reading (HR), German Book Club (Büchergilde Gutenberg)
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Alma)
Domestic Rights Sales:German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag), German Radio Play (Hessischer Rundfunk)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
In his new book, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, the master of the political and literary essay, discloses information about matters big and small, daily and commonplace themes, astounding his readers...
English world rights (Seagull), France (Alma)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Malpaso), Italy (Einaudi), Korea (Orot)
Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Fonghong Books), France (Gallimard),
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Catalan rights (Arcadia), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Cossee), Denmark (Hovedland), Sweden (Karneval), Norway (Valdisholm), Croatia (Meandarmedia), Greece (Nefeli)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Italy (Einaudi)
Russia (selection; Obedinennoe)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Spanish rights Latin America (Capital Intelectual), Italy (Einaudi)
In Concomitants, Johnson's account of his experiences as a writer in both East and West, Uwe Johnson describes the failure of a book he had set out to write in 1963 and in which he wanted to document the work of Fluchthelfer (»escape helpers«), who aided people in fleeing the GDR. For that purpose, he conducted interviews about the Why and How of their work with members of...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Denmark (Gyldendal)