Kafka FranzABAA
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192432166Berlin: Die Schmiede 1924. First edition. Publisher's brown striped boards printed cover and spine labels design by Georg Salter. A fine copy in the rare and fragile dust jacket with only minimal wear. Published shortly after Kafka's death in June 1924 it is the last book for which he corrected proofs. Dietz 66. <br/><br/> Die Schmiede hardcover books
19292905Stara Rise Czech Republic: Josef Florian 1929. First Edition. Softcover. Very Good/Very good. Together 2 volumes large 4to and 8vo. PORTFOLIO 310 x 235 mm. Half-title SIGNED by the artist title-page 2-page translation of Kafka's "Ein Traum" into Czech by Gustav Janouch list of plates and statement of limitation printed in red and black. With 6 full-page heliogravures from etchings by Otto Coester numbered 1-6 in pencil. Loose as issued original brown textured wrappers front wrapper with vignette printed in black spine chipped with long tear along fold plates perfectly clean. TEXT VOLUME 170 x 115 mm. 82 3 pp. Pictorial title-page printed in red and black. With 7 b/w illustrations in the text likewise by Coester 3 elaborate decorative initials printed in red. Original pale ivory wrappers front wrapper and spine lettered in purple and grey lightly rubbed. ADDED: 4-page publisher's prospectus and with illustrated card of Coester's "Promena" laid in. The entire ensemble preserved in a light gold colored cloth case. ¶ Important collection of the first illustrations of any Kafka work in any language. Here offered is the scarce first edition in Czech of "Metamorphosis" along with the rare separately published portfolio of six heliogravures from etchings all illustrated by Swabian artist Otto Coester. Coester lived in Moravia in the 1920s and belonged to a close-knit circle of Kafka admirers. Although there is no confirmed record of Kafka and Coester ever meeting in person they certainly knew each other by reputation and their proximity has led some scholars to question whether or not Coester had some inside knowledge of Kafka's vision see: David Gallagher "The Metamorphosis" p. 134. ¶ That Kafka's legendary "Der Verwandlung" is illustrated here for the first time is highly significant. From its "inception" Kafka had insisted that the creature exist only as the product reader's own worst nightmare undefined by any graphic representation on the printed page. Indeed concerning publication of the 1915 Leipzig first edition of "Der Vanderlung" Kafka demanded that: "The insect itself must not be illustrated by a drawing. It cannot be shown at all not even from a distance." ¶ Thus these 1929 illustrations are the earliest published depiction of the mythic creature. The arresting eerie heliogravures depict various highlights of the story from the protagonist Gregor Samsa awakening "from monstrous dreams" to his transformation "right there on his bed into some sort of monstrous insect"; Gregor's wife Grete playing her violin for the boarders; the discovery of Gregor's disgusting carcass and more. The text volume published contemporaneously with the portfolio contains an entirely DIFFERENT series of Coester's "Metamorphosis" illustrations; therefore in order to assess the full compliment of the iconographic tradition of Franz Kafka's writings we must examine both Coester editions together. Doing so is extremely difficult: OCLC identifies Univ. Illinois and Univ. Indiana as the only American institutions holding both the portfolio and the published first Czech edition; Harvard has only the book. ¶ Coester 1902-1990 was close to the Paris Surrealists the Bauhaus and the Werkbund; among his circle of friends were Alfred Kubin Ossip Zadkine Gerhard Marcks and Ewald Matare. He traveled to Moravia in 1927 and there publisher and early Kafka admirer Josef Florian inspired Coester to create book illustrations for "The Metamorphosis." These appeared in 1929 in a portfolio limited to just 120 copies of which ours is number 72 for which the illustrations were printed by the Graphic Union in Prague under the supervision of Josef Capek and the letterpress by Kryl and Scotti in Novy Jicine. That Coester himself assumed responsibility for the distribution of the portfolio and sold a number of copies in Germany may account for its rarity: after all Coester was a painter not a bookseller and both publications appeared during two World Wars during which time the market for artist's books was almost non-existent SOURCE: O.F. Babler "Rane ceske preklady Franze Kafky" in: Franz Kafka: Liblicka Konference ed. Eduard Goldstucker/ Prague: CSAV 1963 p. 146. The first Czech edition of "The Metamorphosis" present here in excellent condition was limited to 400 copies of which ours is number 310 of 400 copies on velin from a total edition of 600. ¶ See the exhibition catalogue: "Otto Coester - prvnà ilustrátor Franze Kafky" Dusseldorf Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen 1990. Borchers / Svestka Otto Coester Monographie mit Oeuvreverzeichnis 1991 p. 22 and no. 13 a-h. Literature: Katerina Nakladalova "Promena Franze Kafky od ilustrace po inspiraci Reflexe Kafkova dila ve vytvarnem umeni v Ceskoslovensku "Transformation of Franz Kafka from illustration to inspiration: Reflection of Kafka's work in fine art in Czechoslovakia" Masters Thesis Masarykova University Brno 2013 figs. 4-6. Josef Florian unknown books
192632165Munich: Kurt Wolff 1926. First edition. 8vo pp. vi 504. Original blue cloth some mild fading internally fine and fresh with the rare original dust jacket edges and folds minimally restored slightly chipped at the ends of the spine the jacket carries a quote from Hermann Hesse calling Kafka "König der Deutschen Sprache" <br/><br/> Kurt Wolff hardcover books
2034First edition. Original wrappers. FIRST EDITION THE PREFERRED ISSUE IN ILLUSTRATED WRAPPERS OF ONE OF THE MASTERPIECES OF WORLD LITERATURE. "On the evening of November 17 1912 a young employee of the Workmen's Accident Insurance Agency in Prague sat down to work on a 'troubling little story' that had occurred to him 'in bed' the previous night. After spending the first part of the day in the office he returned to the apartment he shared with his parents and thee sisters had lunch napped took a walk and then did a series of strengthening and stretching calisthenics. This was his daily ritual before settling in for the evening - and often far into the night - to what he considered his true life a life dedicated to writing. Then whether acting on a long-meditated plan or following an obscure sudden intuition he set down the words of the first hammerlike sentence of what would become his most famous story and one of the defining works of modern imaginative fiction The Metamorphosis or more simply 'The Transformation': 'When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some sort of monstrous insect.' Ever since readers have been mesmerized amused puzzled irritated and unsettled by Gregor's life-changing transformation" Mark M. Anderson ed. The Metamorphosis.<br /> <br /> With the famous illustration by Ottomar Starke on the front wrapper. Kafka was adamant that the illustration not depict a bug writing in a letter to the publishing house: "The insect itself must not be illustrated by a drawing. It cannot be shown at all not even from a distance." <br /> <br /> The Metamorphosis was one of the few works published by Kafka in his lifetime. <br /> <br /> Leipzig: Kurt Wolff 1915. Octavo original illustrated wrappers dated 1916 as usual over red paper covers; custom cloth box. A little foxing to front wrapper; text exceptionally clean and fresh. An excellent copy of one of the cornerstones of Western literature. unknown books
1916FK003Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag 1916 First edition. Publishers gray wrappers with 3 leaves of advertisements at rear in original pictorial dust jacket. Book with slight lean to spine interior clean; jacket folds lightly rubbed very light wear to spine ends with title and author inked on spine by previous owner. The Metamorphosis was first published serially in German under the title Die Verwandlung in the avant-garde journal Die weissen Blätter in October 1915 and in book format by Kurt Wolff Verlag in December of the same year. It tells the story of the anti-hero Gregor Samsa an overworked travelling salesman who awakens to find himself transformed into an ungeheueres Ungeziefer or as Lloyd translates "some monstrous kind of vermin;" Kafka's deliberately vague description of Samsa's new insect-like body which in the original German is emphasized as being dirty and bottom-feeding makes a direct translation into English extremely difficult but is generally accepted to be a cockroach. As Gregor realizes his own transformation the cause of which is never explained his family's opinion of him similarly transforms as they are both frustrated by his inability to continue to support them financially and disgusted by his new physical appearance. The Metamorphosis is widely considered one of the most influential works of the 20th century. First Edition. Original Wraps. Near Fine. Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag paperback books
1915140937186Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag 1915. Very Good. First edition first printing. Publisher's original printed blue paper-covered boards. Very Good with toning to covers and rubbing at extremities. Previous owner name crossed out on front paste down and title page several hinges slightly exposed. A landmark of 20th century literature and Kafka's most enduring work. Kurt Wolff Verlag unknown books
1915140937916Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag 1915. First Edition. Very Good. First edition first printing with no stamps to title page case-bound issue. Sans-serif variant of type to front cover and spine no priority. 73 1 5 ads pp. Publisher's printed blue paper-covered boards. In German. Very Good with typical sunning along top edge of front and back boards rubbing along edges of head boards bowed outwards a little worn tips spine slightly darkened. Internally bright. The first book appearance of Kafka's The Metamorphosis issued simultaneously in wraps and boards a landmark of 20th century literature. Kurt Wolff Verlag unknown books
19152037Leipzig: Der Weissen Bücher 1915. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST APPEARANCE OF A MASTERPIECE OF WESTERN LITERATURE PRECEDING THE FIRST BOOK EDITION. "Kafka read the first section of his 'bug piece' Wanzensache aloud to friends on November 24 1912 and again on December 15. People started talking about it and Kafka received a query from publisher Kurt Wolff in March 1913 on the recommendation of Kafka's friend Franz Werfel. Franz Blei the literary editor of the new avant-garde journal Die weissen Blätter expressed interest and Robert Musil wrote as well soliciting the novella for the more established Die neue Rundschau. But months passed before Kafka had a clean manuscript ready for submission and then World War I intervened causing further delays. In the spring of 1915 René Schickele took over as editor-in-chief of Die weissen Blätter and with Max Brod's help Kafka placed the story there. It came out in October 1915 and then appeared in December 1915 though dated 1916 as a slender volume published by Kurt Wolff Verlag in Leipzig" Susan Bernofsky The New Yorker. IN: Die Weissen Blätter 2 Jahrgang October 1915 pp. 1177-1230. The whole issue October 1915 offered. Leipzig: Der Weissen Bücher 1915. Octavo original wrappers; custom cloth box. Mild foxing to wrappers a little wear at the spine ends. A rare well-preserved copy in the original wrappers of the true first printing; considerably more rare than the first book edition. Der Weissen Bücher unknown books
19371508066Knopf 1937. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A fine first US edition in a fine dust jacket. First American edition stated on the copyright page. Original price still on front flap of the jacket. Housed in a custom-made collector's clamshell case. Knopf hardcover books
19902995New York: Vincent FitzGerald and Company 1990. First Edition thus one of 50 copies all on BFK Rives paper all signed by Turner and Feingold. Page size: 11 x 13". Bound: collaged Japanese grey paper over boards housed in black silk box fine. Illustrating Kafka's 15 short fictions are 25 photogravures a delicate process little used since the 19th century. The process in which original prints are made from a photograph etched by ultraviolet light on an engraved copper plate is used in an innovative contemporary way to reflect the great Modernist author's distinctive 20th century sensibility with its inexplicable fears and haunting sense of helpless isolation. Rather than standing aloof from the text Turner's images enfold it combat it or weave their way across it. Gatefold pages aquatints adding almost subliminal touches of colors and collages employing a variety of fine papers in various textures and colors are among the techniques which add to the effect of a visual environment specially created for Kafka's lost souls to inhabit. Vincent FitzGerald and Company unknown books
1930140938490New York: Alfred A. Knopf 1930. First American Edition. Very Good/Very Good. First American edition first printing. Bound in publisher's light grey cloth stamped in black. Very Good with light toning to spine and top edges light foxing. Pages toned and lightly musty. In a Very Good price-clipped dust jacket with light edge wear toned at the spine and top edge. A lovely copy. Alfred A. Knopf unknown books
193096542New York: Alfred A. Knopf 1930. First edition in English of Kafka's classic work. Octavo original cloth. Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. Translated by Edwin and Willa Muir. With an introduction by Edwin Muir. A superior example scarce in this condition. The limits of Kafka's messianic vision correspond to the great skepticism with which he regarded the possibility of transcending the human predicament . . . At precisely the point when K. draws closest to his own salvation and to the salvation that he could offer the rest of the world he is also farthest away from it. At precisely the moment when his spirit is called K. is asleep" W. G. Sebald. It is the basis for the 1968 film directed by Rudolf Noelte and starring Maximilian Schell Cordula Trantow Trudik Daniel and Helmut Qualtinger and the 1997 film by Austrian director Michael Haneke. Alfred A. Knopf hardcover books
1925122327Berlin: Verlag Die Schmiede 1925. True first edition of Kafka's classic work. Octavo bound in full morocco gilt titles and tooling to the spine raised bands gilt tooling to the front and rear panels marbled endpapers all edges gilt. In fine condition. First editions are rare. Kafka's Der Prozess The Trial according to Albert Camus takes us "to the limits of human thought. Indeed everything in this work is in the true sense essential. It states the problem of the absurd in its entirety." Published posthumously in German in 1925 by Kafka's friend and executor Max Brod the book "has passed into far more than classical literary status. In more than one hundred languages the epithet 'kafkaesque' attaches to the central images to the constants of inhumanity and absurdity in our times. In this diffusion of the kafkaesque into so many recesses of our private and public existence The Trial plays a commanding role" George Steiner. In 1999 it was listed in Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century and as number two of the Best German Novels of the Twentieth Century. Verlag Die Schmiede hardcover books
192420345Munich: Kurt Wolff Verlag 1924. First editions. Hardcover. Orig. green cloth spine Art Deco decorated cloth with blue spine label printed in gilt. Fine. 189 69 86 pages respectively. 19.5 x 13.5 cm. The first two works published in a Limited edition one of 1000 copies. Only a few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime: Ein Landarzt A Country Doctor is one He prepared Ein Hungerkünstler A Hunger Artist for print but it was not published until after his death thanks to Max Brod Kafka's friend and literary executor who ignored Kafka's request to destroy his unpublished work. Text in German. Bright clean and very fresh copy. Kurt Wolff Verlag hardcover books
1962135566N.p.: Roger Corbeau 1962. Two oversize double weight still photographs from the set of the 1962 film. Each shot and stamped by still photographer Roger Corbeau and with unique rubber stamped reference numbers on the verso. <br/><br/>"Le proces" released as "The Trial" in the UK and the US was co-produced by entities in France West Germany and Italy and was shot in France between March and June of 1962. Welles considered it his best film and it remains one of the few great twentieth century adaptations of existentialist literature and the definitive visualization of Kafka's work. <br/><br/>9.5 x 8 inches. In an archival mat. Fine. <br/><br/>Grant US. Spicer US. Roger Corbeau unknown books
19222192Berlin and Leipzig: S. Fischer Verlag 1922. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST PRINTING IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS. "One of the most highly regarded literary and cultural journals in the German language Die neue Rundschau which is still published today first appeared in 1890. In Kafka's time it was the major periodical publication of one of the leading German literary presses. it published literary works by some of the most significant authors of the time including Herman Hesse Thomas Mann Rainer Maria Rilke. Kafka was a regular reader of Die neue Rundschau throughout his life." After Kafka's submission of "Die Verwandlung" "The Metamorphosis" was rejected due to its inordinate length "Kafka was disappointed not to be able to count himself among the authors represented by this respected journal. However he did eventually join their ranks in October 1922 when the story "Ein Hungerkünstler" "A Hunger Artist" appeared here." Kafka "indirectly lifted this piece to significant stature in his oeuvre by exempting it from the wish of annihilation that he had decreed for most of his other works. In addition he chose it as the title story for the last volume of stories that he was able to oversee" Richard T. Gray A Franz Kafka Encyclopedia. IN: Die Neue Rundschau Vol. XXXIII Band 2 pp. 983-992. Berlin and Leipzig: S. Fischer Verlag October 1922 pp. 961-1056. Tall octavo original wrappers; custom silk box. Slight lean to spine; a touch of dampstaining to extreme edge of text block well away from text. Rare in original wrappers. S. Fischer Verlag unknown books
1971CNJL771West Burke Vermont: The Janus Press 1971. Limited Edition. Folio. Fine. Van Vliet Claire. No. 48 of 100 copies folio size 24 pp. signed by Claire Van Vliet. Presented as unbound sheets with the lithographs printed on the same paper as the text. Claire Van Vliet b. 1933 the artist for this book is also the founder of The Janus Press which she started in San Diego in 1955. Van Vliet chose "Janus" as the name for her Press based on the ancient Roman god Janus who looked both forward and backward and therefore stood for balance. Franz Kafka 1883-1924 has been called "the Dante of the 20th century" and Nabokov placed him among the greatest writers of that century. His writings often feature isolated protagonists faced by bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers from which has arisen the term "Kafkaesque" N.B. info on author from Wiki. This short story an excerpt from "The Penal Colony" per a note on the copyright page. <br/><br/>___DESCRIPTION: Unbound sheets ten signatures total eight full-page lithographs by Claire Van Vlient with tissue guards the lithographs printed directly from the stones drawn by the artist with no printing on the reverse side of the page containing the lithographs; folio size approximately 12.75" tall 12 printed leaves total text Monotype Times New Roman printed letterpress paper Zerkall Butten; limited edition of 100 copies this no. 48. The loose signatures are encased in a drop-back box covered in olive linen cloth ivory paper spine label with black lettering lined with black linen cloth. <br/><br/>___CONDITION: Fine - the signatures are clean crisp as new. The box is also fine the spine label perfect; there are some natural variations in the linen cloth covering the box as it came from the publisher. <br/><br/>___POSTAGE: International customers please note that additional postage may apply as the standard does not always cover costs; please contact us for details. <br/><br/>___Swan's Fine Books is pleased to be a member of the ABAAILAB and IOBA and we stand behind every book we sell. Please contact us with any questions you may have we are here to help. The Janus Press unknown books
19371810048Gollancz 1937. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. A very good first UK edition with 1937 on title page with a stain on bottom edge of book block. Gollancz hardcover books
1931122929Berlin: Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag 1931. First edition of this collection of short stories by Kafka. Octavo bound in full leather gilt titles and tooling to the spine gilt tooling to the front and rear panel all edges gilt marbled endpapers. In fine condition. While written in 1917 it was not published until 1930 seven years after Kafka's death. Max Brod included it in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer the first posthumous collection of short stories by Franz Kafka.Contained within the story is a parable that was separately published as "A Message from the Emperor" "Eine kaiserliche Botschaft" in 1919 in the collection Ein Landarzt A Country Doctor. Some sub-themes of the story include why the wall was built piecemeal in small sections in many different places the relationship of the Chinese with the past and the present and the emperor's imperceptible presence. The story is told in first person by an older man from a southern province. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag hardcover books
1953WRCLIT76775Paris: Chez A. Kroll 1953. Small quarto 19 x 17cm. Loose folded sheets laid into stiff wrappers with pictorial vignette. Plates. A few plate guard tissues creased a few lower margins show a bit of foxing but a near fine copy in very good board slipcase and chemise. The label on the chemise is partially chipped away. First printing in this format of the translation into French by Alexandre Vialatte printed in company with an appended letter from Max Brod. Illustrated with 12 original burin engravings by A. Krol. From a total edition of 165 copies of which 15 were hors commerce printed on vélin d'Arches this is one of 113 numbered copies. All copies were signed by the artist Abram Krol. MONOD 6488. BENEZIT VIII:101. [Chez A. Kroll] unknown books
193855209London: George Routledge & Sons 1938. First UK Edn. 8vo pp. 300 adv. Bound in burgundy cloth some spotting to the foredge and endpapers a very good plus copy in little nicked and worn price clipped dj. Mellodwn D32. The third of the author's novels all published after his death. First published in German in 1927 and translated into English by Willa and Edwin Muir. Amerika also known as Der Verschollene or The Man Who Disappeared was the author's first novel published posthumously in 1927. George Routledge & Sons unknown books
1938WRCLIT70592London: George Routledge & Sons 1938. Plum cloth lettered in gilt. First UK edition of the Edwin and Willa Muir translation. Spine and top edge a trace darkened otherwise a very good copy in tanned dust jacket with some old internally mended tears and externally mended snagged chips at the bottom edge of the rear panel. MELLOWN D32. George Routledge & Sons hardcover books
193120344Munich: Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag 1931. First edition. Hardcover. Orig. blue cloth gold spine label printed in red. Near fine. 266 pages. 19.5 x 11.5 cm. Max Brod Kafka's friend and literary executor was instructed by Kafka to destroy his unpublished work. Fortunately Brod ignored the request published the novels and collected works between 1925 and 1935. Brod edited a collection of prose and unpublished stories as "Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer" The Great Wall of China including the story of the same name as he did with "Amerika" and "Das Schloss." All three are now considered to be the Definitive Editions. Text in German. Epilogue by Max Brod and Hans Joachim Schoeps. Owner inscription second free endpaper dated 1934 three leaves of adverts at rear clean and fresh copy spine sunned. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag hardcover books
1930170331010London: Martin Secker 1930. First British Edition. Very Good. First British edition first printing. Very Good with spine cloth sunned corners bumped and a previous owner name to the front free end paper. A nice copy lacking the dust jacket. Martin Secker unknown books
197120897West Burke VT: The Janus Press 1971. First Edition. Wraps. Fine. Van Vliet Claire. Lithographs printed from stone on Zerkall Butten paper text set in Monotype Times New Roman. Lithographs by Claire Van Vliet. 100 copies produced: first ten copies numbered I-X include an extra set of lithographs this is copy number 58 of the remaining 90 copies signed by the artist at colophon. Unpag. Ten loose signatures as produced in an olive green cloth covered clamshell box in Fine condition with paper label at spine. The Janus Press unknown books
