»let's hold each other tight and hold everything tight!«
»You cannot stay in no man's land.«
Ingeborg Bachmann in a letter to Ilse Aichinger and Günter Eich, November 23,1956
Their correspondence from 1949 to 1962, in which Günter Eich, as Aichinger’s husband, was also involved,...
Their correspondence from 1949 to 1962, in which Günter Eich, as Aichinger’s husband, was also involved, documents this precarious attempt in roughly 100 letters – 30 from Bachmann, 74 from Aichinger and Eich. The strikingly familial tone is set by Aichinger. For her, who lost close relatives to the Shoah and was subjected to persecution in Vienna, family remained the greatest asset to be protected and Bachmann is made a part of it as Günter Eich’s »third twin« and »little sister«.
The fact that this friendship failed despite all their efforts is part of the tragedy that is hidden in this correspondence and that only rarely emerges in a »searching, for no reason, pathological, for the reason for the absence of any message [...] with the desire for a word«.
»This correspondence is not just revealing in a literary sense. It is also an impressive study of women’s life plans before the socio-political upheavals following the end of the sixties.« Helmut Böttiger, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»The last lines of this volume, which is well worth reading, are penned by Ingeborg Bachmann. In them she confesses to her friend that she has ›said far too little. To have thanked you too little, to have seen you too rarely -‹. The letter was never sent.« Sandra Kegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»a small, heart-wrenching lesson about the economy of love« Dagmar Just, Die Weltwoche
»The letters are particularly revealing and novel in how they lay bare the authors’ different life plans.« Elke Schlinsog, Deutschlandfunk Kultur
»This correspondence is not just revealing in a literary sense. It is also an impressive study of women’s life plans before the socio-political upheavals following the end of the sixties.« Helmut Böttiger, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»The last lines of this volume,...
Persons
Ingeborg Bachmann
Ingeborg Bachmann was born on June 25, 1926 in Klagenfurt. She first rose to prominence as a poet after reading her work at a gathering of the legendary Gruppe 47. She went on to publish two collections of poetry, Die gestundete Zeit (1953) and Anrufung des Großen Bären (1956), along with numerous radio plays, essays, and short story collections. In 1971, she published her only completed novel, Malina. Bachmann passed away on 17 October 1973 in Rome.
Ingeborg Bachmann was born on June 25, 1926 in Klagenfurt. She first rose to prominence as a poet after reading her work at a gathering of the...
Günter Eich
Ilse Aichinger
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
»What Are We Going to Do With Our Lives?«
»Senza casa«
»We Didn’t Do Well« – The Bachmann Frisch Correspondence
Spring 1958: Ingeborg Bachmann – celebrated poet, winner of Literary Prize of Gruppe 47 and cover star of Der Spiegel – is broadcasting the radio play Der gute Gott von...
English world rights (Seagull), Italy (Feltrinelli)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (speak low)
Invocation of Ursa Major
The verses in Ingeborg Bachmann’s second collection of poetry, Invocation of Ursa Major (1956), caused a sensation when they were published and soon became canonised: they were immensely...
Italy (Adelphi)
The Thirtieth Year
In 1956, at 30 years of age, Ingeborg Bachman began with the first drafts for the book, which is now to published in the Salzburger Bachmann Edition. It would take five years until all seven stories had been submitted to Piper Verlag ready for publication in the spring of 1961 and the first volume could be published in July that same year.
Of the writing phase the...
»Write down everything that is true«
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...
Male Oscuro
Ingeborg Bachmann’s dream notes, correspondence drafts and records from the time of her illness are of great literary interest as the primary elements of the subsequent Todesarten-texts. In addition, these writings are apt to further our knowledge about her illness and the phenomenon of illness itself. They are outrageous, courageous in their analytic approach, defeated...
The Book Goldmann
The Book Goldmann is the name Ingeborg Bachmann gave to her great narrative project, which she cherished until the end. This edition renders the previously only fragmentarily...
Turkey (Can)
The Radio Familiy
English world rights (Seagull), Turkey (Can)
War Diary
English world rights (Seagull), France (Actes Sud), Italy (Adelphi), Poland (Czarne), Denmark (Grif), Czech Republic (Pulchra), Ukraine (Osnovy), Israel (Hakkibutz Hameuchad – Sifriyat Poalim), Bengali rights (Kromosho Prakashan)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Akal)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Audiobuch)
Herzzeit – The Bachmann–Celan Correspondence
The correspondence from the period 1948-61 – a last letter penned by Celan...
English world rights (Seagull), Portuguese rights (Antígona), Chinese simplex rights (China Renmin UP), Russia (Ad marginem), France (Seuil), Italy (Nottetempo), Netherlands (Meulenhoff), Denmark (Vandkunsten), Sweden (Ellerströms), Japan (Seidosha), Poland (A5), Czech Republic (Pulchra), Bulgaria (Panorama), Romania (Art), Turkey (Kirmizi Kedi), Ukraine (Knihy XXI), Georgia (Ibis)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Fondo Cultura), Croatia (OceanMore)
Collected Poems
Inventory
Eich, one of the most important poets of the post-war period, curated this edition from the perspective of someone who considers the effect of his own work, reflects on readers’ reactions and responds to them:...
Malina
In Malina, originally published in German in 1971, Ingeborg Bachmann invites the reader into a world stretched to the very limits of language. An unnamed narrator, a writer in Vienna, is...
USA & Canada (New Directions), UK & Commonwealth (Penguin), Spanish world rights (Nórdica), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estaçao Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Antígona), France (Seuil), Italy (Adelphi), Netherlands (Koppernik), Denmark (Grif), Sweden (Ellerströms), Korea (Minumsa), Japan (Chikuma Shobo), Czech Republic (Opus), Serbia (Kontrast), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Potlatch), Albania (Aleph), Ukraine (Fabula), Georgia (Palitra L), Armenia (Antares), Azerbaijan (Alatoran), Iran (Whale Publishing)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Akal), Catalan rights (Edicions 62), Norway (Bokvennen), Finland (Weilin & Göös), Poland (A5, Polish audio book: Mala Litera), Slovakia (Slovensky Spisovatel), Hungary (Jelenkor), Bulgaria (Na Otetschestwenia Front), Romania (Humanitas), Lithuania (Lithuanian Writers Union), Slovenia (Pomuska Zalozba), Macedonia (Tri), Israel (Hakibutz Hameuchad / Sifriat Poalim)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club (Büchergilde Gutenberg), German Audiobook (DAV), German Radio Play (HR2)
Dreams
Thailand (Nanmee Books)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Czech Republic (Dilia)
Deferred Time
For the young Ingeborg Bachmann and her generation, the great hope after the war soon proved deceptive. The themes in Bachmann's first volume of poetry, Deferred Time (1953), are representative of the experience that defines writing after 1945: Departure and farewell, guilt and memory. In the dramatic gestures and memorable images of her poetic language, this experience found a...