MANN- ABOUT HIMself 1st ed.

MANN TOMASZ

ABOUT HIMSELF

A SELECTION OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS

Wrapper and binding designed by Stanislaw Brykczynski

First edition

Thomas Mann was fond of quoting Goethe's statement: "I have always made use only of actual experiences; making things up has never been my habit: I considered the world more brilliant than my own genius." The writer, whose works - from Buddwnbrooks to Doctor Faustus - contain so many autobiographical themes, did not leave a proper autobiography, however sometimes, as he confesses, he carried around the idea of telling his own story after the many books he wrote drawing on his life. He never realized this intention. All that remains of him are his diaries, or rather, the part of them written while he was already in exile, since he destroyed the notes kept until 1933 himself. In accordance with the writer's will, they will be made available only twenty years after his death, i.e. in 1975. It is likely that these are only scanty daily notes on both important and trivial matters, current events, experiences, plans and intentions - a notebook kept on a daily basis, as he himself noted, "without literary value."

On the other hand, in essay writing, which has always been a constituent part of his work, a "critical scrutiny of his own life," as it were, the writer has on more than one occasion spoken directly about his life and work.

The sketches published in the volume About Myself are meant to replace this non-existent autobiography, they are, as it were, an attempt to reconstruct a self-portrait, fragments of which were created at different times and under different circumstances. These sketches, dating from 1907 to 1953, which are literary contributions to the biography of a man and an artist, have one thing in common - the absolute fidelity and sincerity of the writer to himself.

Warsaw 1971, "Czytelnik" Publishing House, pp [4] 304, format: 15x21 cm

HARDCOVER WITH WRAPPER

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