Description:

Thomas Mann, Nobel Prize Novelist, Pair of Signed Letters

1) Autograph Letter Signed, “Thomas Mann”, in German, 1p, on light blue stationery with his personal letterhead, 6” x 8”, Princeton, December 30, 1938, to Miss Franzi Ascher in New York City. Includes original mailing envelope. Central horizontal mailing fold with 2” separation at right, creasing, scattered foxing, ghost of a paper clip at top, else Very Good. Untranslated.

2) Typed Letter Signed, “Thomas Mann”, 1p, on his personal stationery, 8.5” x 11”, Pacific Palisades, November 13, 1949. Intersecting folds, scattered foxing, minor creasing, show-through from mounting remnants at verso, else Good plus. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from R&R Enterprises Autograph Auctions.

Mann writes an encouraging reply to a letter he received from Mrs. C. E. Joiner of Palm City, California. Mann’s letter, in part, “I was sorry about the depressed mood in which your letter apparently had been written. Not that there isn’t ample reason for such a mood! The world situation looks dark enough…but …there are men and women of insight and good will; there are many good books on the crisis of our time trying to find a solution to it. You are too young to surrender permanently to the despair with which the present state of civilization fills you…I always return from moods of discouragement to new hope and new work.”

Paul Thomas Mann (1875-1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized versions of German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Schopenhauer.

When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. In 1938, Mann emigrated to the United States. He moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where he wrote the here offered letter to Franzi Ascher. Mann taught at Princeton University from 1938 to 1941. In 1942, the Mann family moved to the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where the here offered letter to C. E. Joiner was written. Mann left the United States to return to Switzerland in 1952.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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