Franz Kafka’s letter – ravishingly beautiful

In the upcoming Auction 30, we will be auctioning Franz Kafka’s autograph manuscript of his story “Erstes Leid“ (First Sorrow), together with Kafka’s three-page accompanying letter to Hans Mardersteig (early May 1922). In the previous months, Mardersteig and Kurt Wolff had asked Kafka several times for a contribution to the exclusive art magazine “Genius”, of which Hans Mardersteig was co-editor. Kurt Wolff described the letter with Kafka’s moving description of his five-year creative crisis and Max Brod’s overly euphoric assessment of his texts as “ravishingly beautiful”. The letter was thought to have been lost for decades; it was not until 1983 that it was discovered that the letter and manuscript had remained in the recipient’s family.