Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer, 1945. 7 3/4" x 5", 708 pages, [1] leaf (contents). First Edition. Original cloth and dust jacket. Inscribed and signed by the author on the front fly leaf. This is the first printing of a collection of 16 previously published essays by Mann, several of them famous, dealing in some way with "the problem of humanity" by discussing various works by Lessing, Goethe, Tolstoi, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Freud, Cervantes, and others. Although Thomas Mann is known primarily as a novelist, and although he wrote no full-length studies of authors or artists, he was a prolific essay writer. The present group of essays includes "stimulating and penetrating excursions into criticism." (Oxford Companion) The inscription at the front reads (in German): "George Marek/ thankful for his visit/ and for his enjoyment of / this book/ Pacif. Palisades/ 11 April 1949/ Thomas Mann." Marek translated Mann's contribution to an anthology entitled The Ten Commandments, published during World War II.
500/700 Sold $316.25
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