Kafka, Franz. Betrachtung.

€ 20,000.00

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 "XIX" 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.

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).