Otto Stoessl's copy

Kafka, Franz. Betrachtung.

€ 35,000.00

First edition, first issue, of Kafka's first book publication. One of 800 copies printed at the press of Poeschel & Trepte in Leipzig in November 1912 (though dated "1913" on the title-page). Published on the initiative of Kurt Wolff and dedicated to Kafka's friend Max Brod (designated only by his initials), "Betrachtung" ("Meditation") is a collection of eighteen stories, eight of which had already been published in 1908 in Franz Blei's journal "Hyperion", but some of which Kafka subsequently revised.

This copy is numbered "XVII" on the reverse of the title, marking it as one of only 30 (or 35?) copies numbered in Roman numerals that Kafka had his publishers send to readers whose opinion he held in particular regard. This copy is from the library of the Viennese writer Otto Stoessl (1875-1936).

The jurist and civil servant Stoessl, son of a physician from a Brno family of Rabbis, began writing plays in 1897 and soon joined the circle of Karl Kraus, whose "Fackel" would publish his works. He met Kafka in Prague on 14 October 1912 while visiting Max Brod, who had appreciated Stoessl's recent novel "Morgenrot". Kafka mentions the present copy of "Betrachtung" in a letter to Stoessl, dated 27 January 1913: "I beg you to accept my book 'Betrachtung', which Rowohlt Publishers sent you, as a small token of the friendship that binds me to your writings. No doubt you hardly remember ever having met someone of my name. Yet this is the case. It was in Prague, at the "Two Blackbirds" inn, and my friend Max Brod was kind enough to introduce me to you. Seeing and hearing you then was a great encouragement to me, and even today I carry with me a remark that you made then, which resonated greatly: 'The epic writer knows everything'". When Stoessl, so admired by Kafka, responded with praise for the book, this prompted new self-doubt in Kafka, who wrote to his fiancée Felice Bauer: "He also writes about my book, but with such complete lack of understanding that for a moment I thought the book must really be good, since - even in a man as discerning and experienced in literary matters as Stoessl - it can create the kind of misunderstanding one would consider impossible with books and possible only with living, hence complex, human beings".

Kafka's relationship with the publishers Rowohlt and Wolff "has sometimes been represented as resulting from a lucky 'chance encounter' (Zufall) which was to lead to a perfect partnership; in fact, it was carefully orchestrated by Brod. Shortly after their first meeting in Leipzig on 29 June 1912, Kafka dispatched a 33-page manuscript to Rowohlt's newly established firm, who, by dint of using a typeface so large that Kafka regarded it as more suitable for the dissemination of the Laws of Moses, produced a bibliophile edition entitled 'Betrachtung' ('Contemplation') which ran to 99 pages [... Kafka] voiced his preferences as regards typeface and appearance with confidence, politely yet firmly insisting on a particular type of binding and paper" (The Cambridge Companion to Kafka).