Product description

In the 1950s, Arno Schmidt was looking for new ways to publish. Without an in-house publisher and without a fixed income, he found them in newspapers and magazines, which paid comparatively well for the printing of short literary texts. In the 38 texts that have survived from this period, Schmidt oriented himself towards the new form of the short story. The short and shortest prose printed in full in this volume provides a broad thematic insight into Schmidt's writing. The snapshots tell of the reconstruction and division of Germany, of life with the consequences of the Second World War, which is also threatened by a new war. The seemingly banal everyday encounters are always political and show social abysses as well as moments of fleeting happiness.

Biography

Born in 1934 in Hamelin/Weser, the grandson of the last Weimar court baker spent his childhood and youth in the classical city directly opposite the Goethe House. There he experienced the Second World War, followed the bombing of Weimar as an eyewitness and saw the Buchenwald concentration camp immediately after liberation. He processed these dramatic impressions in many of his poems. After studying Latin and Greek philology in Halle, Arno Schmidt taught in East Frisia for many years and, after working as senior director of studies and ministerial councillor in the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture, was finally appointed university professor at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. He also taught as an honorary professor at the Martin Luther University in Halle/Wittenberg. In retirement, he has lived in Korbach since 1997, but continued to give lectures and seminars at the Philipps University of Marburg until 2014. Notes:

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