Karl WolfskehlLobgesangBüchern bin ich zugeschworen, Zärter noch als Mädchenwangen Inkunabeln, Erstausgaben, Bücher sprechen ungelesen - Bücher, Bücher, Bücher, Bücher München, 1932 |
Song of PraiseTo books I am sworn totally, More tenderly even than girls’ cheeks Incunables and first editions, Books speak to me before their reading– Books and books and books galore Munich 1932 tr. Friedrich Voit |
| Wolfskehl was a great bibliophile. He had to sell his famous book collection when he escaped to New Zealand in 1938, where he died in 1948. Over several years the German Literary Archive in Marbach has reconstructed Wolfskehl’s library, both by acquiring volumes as they came on the market again and with digitized copies, including the small collection he managed to assemble as an exile here in New Zealand. This reconstruction now provides unique and important historical and cultural documentation, illuminating some of the ‘secret ways’ of books as they stretch over centuries and cultural spheres. —Friedrich Voit |