7 volumes published by the Pazifische; authors include Thomas Mann, Franz Werfel; Bruno Frank; Leonhard Frank; Alfred Neumann; Friedrich Torberg; and Alfred Doblin
No Image
- Los Angeles: Plantin Press, 1944
Los Angeles: Plantin Press, 1944. FIRST EDITIONS. Each bound in the original publisher’s cloth-backed boards, author and title in gilt on spine; uncut. Set number 22 of the 150 Subscriber’s editions printed and signed by the author on the colophon. Each volume is a superb copy, like new. THE SIGNED AND LIMITED SUBSCRIBER’S EDITION
1. MANN, Thomas. Thamar. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1942.
2. WERFEL, Franz. Die wahre Geschichte vom wiederhergestellten Kreuz. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1942.
3. FRANK, Bruno. Sechzehntausend Francs. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1943.
4. FRANK, Leonhard. Mathilde. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1943.
5. NEUMANN, Alfred. Giterwerk des Lebens. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1943.
6. TORBERG, Friedrich. Mein is die Rache. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1943.
7. DÖBLIN, Alfred. Nocturno. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1944.
Original editions of the first seven books published by the Pazifische Presse. The Pazifische Presse was the sole representative on the west coast of the United States of those publishers who left Germany and Austria following the rise to power of National Socialists in 1933. Many European refugees came to America, and though most settled in New York, a large number did go to Los Angeles, which became an important center of German-speaking immigration. Artists, authors and intellectuals such as Thomas Mann, Theodore W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang and Arnold Schoenberg were but a few who represented the community of Germans exiled from their native land and who produced major works to address the world crisis.
The Pazifische Presse was founded by Ernst Gottlieb and Felix Guggenheim, both of whom had emigrated to the west coast in around 1939. The publisher “afforded its participants an arena for presenting the best of Weimar culture, not only for the emigree community, but for their American friends and colleagues” (Jaeger, p. 9). They announced the initial publication of seven volumes by distinguished authors who themselves had immigrated to the United States. These included Thomas Mann, the Nobel Laureate for literature in 1929, Franz Werfel, Bruno Frank, Leonhard Frank, Alfred Neumann, Fredrich Toberg, Alfred Döblin and Lion Feuchtwanger. Many of these renowned writers continued to publish during their exile; some even went on to screen writing positions in Hollywood. Most of the authors were selected based upon a personal relationship between them and the publishers.
Gottlieb and Guggenheim worked with Saul and Lillian Marks of the renowned Plantin Press of Los Angeles to print their material. Founded in 1931 and named after Christopher Plantin, the famous sixteenth century printer from Antwerps, the Marks built a strong reputation as printers of artistic and beautiful works. Each of the first seven volumes (of a total of eleven books ultimately released) were printed at the Plantin Press in a run of 250 copies; the first 150 copies were the “Subscriber editions,” signed by the author and bound in half-leather. The remaining 100 copies were a more simply bound unsigned trade edition.
1. The novella Thamar is a partial pre-printing of the fifth section of Joseph, der Ernährer (Joseph the Provider), later published in December, 1943 in Stockholm. This excerpt depicts the story of the young woman Thamar and her education by Jacob. Thomas Mann (1875-1955) was probably Germany’s most influential author of the twentieth century, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. He lived in Munich, where he wrote some of his most successful novels like Buddenbrooks (1901), Death in Venice (1912) and The Magic Mountain (1924). He emigrated to Switzerland, then to Princeton before settling in Southern California, where he finished his great tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers in 1942.
2. First and only edition in German; an English version was published the following year. “The story is about the difficulties confronting the Christian and Jewish faiths in Austria after 1938, and about a rabbi who courageously reconstructs a Christian crucifix that had been desecrated by a Nazi swastika.” Franz Werfel (1890-1945) emigrated from Vienna in 1938, and moved to Los Angeles at the end of 1940, living in the Hollywood Hills where he completed his acclaimed novel Das Lied der Bernadette (The song of Bernadette, 1941), which was later made into a movie.
3. A reprint of the text which was first published in Amsterdam in 1940. The story of a young German who misappropriates the money of a fallen World War I French soldier and suffers the resulting guilt, and his path leading to the rise of National Socialism. Bruno Frank (1887-1945) was a novelist, lyricist and dramatist. He came to Los Angeles in 1938, where he worked as a scriptwriter in Hollywood.
4. A partial pre-printing, the book includes two chapters of the novel by the same title published in 1948 in Amsterdam. The story of a young woman’s formative journey through reality and fantasy.
Leonhard Frank (1882-1961) moved to Los Angeles to accept a contract at Warner Brothers, later penning an autobiographical novel Links wo das Herz ist (Heart on the left, 1952). He returned to Germany in 1950.
5. Also a partial pre-printing, of the first and third chapters of the novel Der Pakt, published in 1949 in Amsterdam. The first part deals with the childhood of American idealist William Walker; the second part takes place in Southern California. The dramatist and historical novelist Alfred Neumann (1895-1952) wrote two works while living in Los Angeles, as well as working for the film industry as a screenwriter. He moved to Italy in 1949.
6. First printing of this novella dealing with the sadistic cruelties in a concentration camp and with Jewish self-identity. Friedrich Torberg (pseudonym of Friedrich Kantor-Berg, 1908-1979) wrote the screenplay for Voice in the Wind (Warner Brothers, 1943).
7. A partial pre-printing from the novel trilogy November 1918, published in three volumes between 1948 and 1950 in Munich. This book deals with the political events in Germany during the November, 1918 revolution. The physician Alfred Döblin (1878-1957) was best-known for his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929).
Jaeger, New Weimar on the Pacific. The Pazifische Presse and German exile publishing in Los Angeles 1942-48 (Los Angeles, 2000).
1. MANN, Thomas. Thamar. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1942.
2. WERFEL, Franz. Die wahre Geschichte vom wiederhergestellten Kreuz. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1942.
3. FRANK, Bruno. Sechzehntausend Francs. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1943.
4. FRANK, Leonhard. Mathilde. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1943.
5. NEUMANN, Alfred. Giterwerk des Lebens. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1943.
6. TORBERG, Friedrich. Mein is die Rache. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1943.
7. DÖBLIN, Alfred. Nocturno. Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse, 1944.
Original editions of the first seven books published by the Pazifische Presse. The Pazifische Presse was the sole representative on the west coast of the United States of those publishers who left Germany and Austria following the rise to power of National Socialists in 1933. Many European refugees came to America, and though most settled in New York, a large number did go to Los Angeles, which became an important center of German-speaking immigration. Artists, authors and intellectuals such as Thomas Mann, Theodore W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang and Arnold Schoenberg were but a few who represented the community of Germans exiled from their native land and who produced major works to address the world crisis.
The Pazifische Presse was founded by Ernst Gottlieb and Felix Guggenheim, both of whom had emigrated to the west coast in around 1939. The publisher “afforded its participants an arena for presenting the best of Weimar culture, not only for the emigree community, but for their American friends and colleagues” (Jaeger, p. 9). They announced the initial publication of seven volumes by distinguished authors who themselves had immigrated to the United States. These included Thomas Mann, the Nobel Laureate for literature in 1929, Franz Werfel, Bruno Frank, Leonhard Frank, Alfred Neumann, Fredrich Toberg, Alfred Döblin and Lion Feuchtwanger. Many of these renowned writers continued to publish during their exile; some even went on to screen writing positions in Hollywood. Most of the authors were selected based upon a personal relationship between them and the publishers.
Gottlieb and Guggenheim worked with Saul and Lillian Marks of the renowned Plantin Press of Los Angeles to print their material. Founded in 1931 and named after Christopher Plantin, the famous sixteenth century printer from Antwerps, the Marks built a strong reputation as printers of artistic and beautiful works. Each of the first seven volumes (of a total of eleven books ultimately released) were printed at the Plantin Press in a run of 250 copies; the first 150 copies were the “Subscriber editions,” signed by the author and bound in half-leather. The remaining 100 copies were a more simply bound unsigned trade edition.
1. The novella Thamar is a partial pre-printing of the fifth section of Joseph, der Ernährer (Joseph the Provider), later published in December, 1943 in Stockholm. This excerpt depicts the story of the young woman Thamar and her education by Jacob. Thomas Mann (1875-1955) was probably Germany’s most influential author of the twentieth century, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. He lived in Munich, where he wrote some of his most successful novels like Buddenbrooks (1901), Death in Venice (1912) and The Magic Mountain (1924). He emigrated to Switzerland, then to Princeton before settling in Southern California, where he finished his great tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers in 1942.
2. First and only edition in German; an English version was published the following year. “The story is about the difficulties confronting the Christian and Jewish faiths in Austria after 1938, and about a rabbi who courageously reconstructs a Christian crucifix that had been desecrated by a Nazi swastika.” Franz Werfel (1890-1945) emigrated from Vienna in 1938, and moved to Los Angeles at the end of 1940, living in the Hollywood Hills where he completed his acclaimed novel Das Lied der Bernadette (The song of Bernadette, 1941), which was later made into a movie.
3. A reprint of the text which was first published in Amsterdam in 1940. The story of a young German who misappropriates the money of a fallen World War I French soldier and suffers the resulting guilt, and his path leading to the rise of National Socialism. Bruno Frank (1887-1945) was a novelist, lyricist and dramatist. He came to Los Angeles in 1938, where he worked as a scriptwriter in Hollywood.
4. A partial pre-printing, the book includes two chapters of the novel by the same title published in 1948 in Amsterdam. The story of a young woman’s formative journey through reality and fantasy.
Leonhard Frank (1882-1961) moved to Los Angeles to accept a contract at Warner Brothers, later penning an autobiographical novel Links wo das Herz ist (Heart on the left, 1952). He returned to Germany in 1950.
5. Also a partial pre-printing, of the first and third chapters of the novel Der Pakt, published in 1949 in Amsterdam. The first part deals with the childhood of American idealist William Walker; the second part takes place in Southern California. The dramatist and historical novelist Alfred Neumann (1895-1952) wrote two works while living in Los Angeles, as well as working for the film industry as a screenwriter. He moved to Italy in 1949.
6. First printing of this novella dealing with the sadistic cruelties in a concentration camp and with Jewish self-identity. Friedrich Torberg (pseudonym of Friedrich Kantor-Berg, 1908-1979) wrote the screenplay for Voice in the Wind (Warner Brothers, 1943).
7. A partial pre-printing from the novel trilogy November 1918, published in three volumes between 1948 and 1950 in Munich. This book deals with the political events in Germany during the November, 1918 revolution. The physician Alfred Döblin (1878-1957) was best-known for his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929).
Jaeger, New Weimar on the Pacific. The Pazifische Presse and German exile publishing in Los Angeles 1942-48 (Los Angeles, 2000).
Details
Title
7 volumes published by the Pazifische; authors include Thomas Mann, Franz Werfel; Bruno Frank; Leonhard Frank; Alfred Neumann; Friedrich Torberg; and Alfred Doblin
Author
PAZIFISCHE PRESSE
Condition
Unknown
Publisher
Plantin Press: Los Angeles
Date
1944
Edition
FIRST EDITIONS