Personliches Dokumente und Briefe edited by Brian Keith-Smith

This book includes a remarkable mix of personal documents, most of them previously unpublished. The selection ranges from an early school essay, quotations from his dissertation, reminiscences of friends, Der Stern (a series of privately circulated documents), extracts from diaries at the end of the Second World War, denazification documents, an autobiographical text, reflections on art and artists, aphorisms, his spiritual testament and a short obituary. This collection, partly available in the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach, is essential to an understanding of Schreyer’s eccentricity, naivety, productivity, obstinancy and openness to others. The previous nineteen volumes of the edition are given an extra dimension with this new view into his personal thoughts and life. The editor’s introduction places these in context and gives an account of collections of Schreyer’s letters (e.g., with Herwarth Walden, Maximilian Tischler, P. Theodor Bogler, the Herder publishing house, and the former Director of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Bernhard Zeller. Also included is a 130-page selection of Schreyer’s mainly unpublished letters that close this first collected edition of Schreyer’s works.