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»I am not and will not be obedient!«

Letters 1881-1904
Edited by Volker Michels
Suhrkamp | Insel
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»I am not and will not be obedient!« / »Ich gehorche nicht und werde nicht gehorchen!«
Letters 1881-1904
Edited by Volker Michels
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, who had already decided by the age of twelve that he would become »either a poet or nothing«.


After a childhood spent partly in Calw, partly in Basel, he begins to resist his parents’ plans, escapes the theological seminary, tries to take his own life and is committed to an...
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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, who had already decided by the age of twelve that he would become »either a poet or nothing«.


After a childhood spent partly in Calw, partly in Basel, he begins to resist his parents’ plans, escapes the theological seminary, tries to take his own life and is committed to an institution for people with mental handicaps and epileptics. He then finishes secondary school until finally, after various detours, his dream of becoming a poet seems within reach. His first publications arouse the interest of important publishers, such as Samuel Fischer who achieved his greatest success after Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks with Hesse’s debut novel Peter Camenzind. After years of protesting and his autodidactic literary studies that he pursued determinedly and which is also documented in these letters, the course for the development of one of the most influential authors of the 20th century is finally set.

It’s not often that a quest for emancipation, ultimately successful, can be portrayed in such a moving and vivid manner as it is done by the example of Hermann Hesse’s youth in the 200 letters contained in this volume.

2012, 661 pages
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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, born in Calw/Württemberg in 1877, died in Montagnola near Lugano, Italy, in August 1962. After an apprenticeship to become a...


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

»It’s Up to the Individual«
Year of Publication: 2024
Volker MichelsYear of Publication: 2024
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...
Memories of Hans
Year of Publication: 2024
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2024
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...
»Surrounded by the Flutters of Western and Eastern Lures«
Year of Publication: 2023
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2023

»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...

»My Dear Brüdi!«
Year of Publication: 2023
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2023

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...

The Tree of Life
Year of Publication: 2022
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2022

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...

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»The Unbearable Must Be Heard«
Year of Publication: 2021
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2021
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...
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For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Pictor's Metamorphoses
Year of Publication: 2021
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2021
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)
»›Great Times‹ Leave Behind Great Piles of Rubble«
Year of Publication: 2020
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2020

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...

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»Trusting That We Won't Lose One Another«
Year of Publication: 2019
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2019

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,...

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At Christmas Time
Year of Publication: 2019
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2019

»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)

The Magic of Colours
Year of Publication: 2019
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2019

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)

»I’m a person of becoming and of change«
Year of Publication: 2016
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2016

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...

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Discover Yourself!
Year of Publication: 2016
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2016

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...

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Turkey (Profil)

»A breach into the darkness of time!«
Year of Publication: 2015
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2015
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...
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For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>

Trees
Year of Publication: 2014
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2014

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)

»To make something beautiful out of the sad«
Year of Publication: 2013
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2013
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...
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Butterflies
Year of Publication: 2011
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2011

»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)

The Glass Bead Game
Year of Publication: 1943
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 1943

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)

Narcissus and Goldmund
Year of Publication: 1930
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 1930

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)

Steppenwolf
Year of Publication: 1927
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 1927

»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), Sweden (Bonniers), 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)


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