TRAKL, Georg. First Edition of the Book, Gedichte; Trakl's own Copy, with a Poem Corrected in his Hand. Leipzig: Kurt Wolff, 1913. Octavo, 65pp. First edition of Trakl's first book, the only one published during his tragically brief lifetime. The author's own copy, in which he has revised the poem, "Traum des Boesen," including the rewritting of a full stanza. With Trakl's woodcut bookplate. Laid in is an evocative three-page letter written on behalf of the poet in June 1913 from Erhard Buschbecks to Franz Zeiss, to whom Trakl would give the present offering, requesting that he assist in finding the poet lodging in Vienna. An early Expressionist whose haunting, disjointed and altogether dispassionatre verse is among the most singular in our century, Trakl, by necessity, has been more admired than emulated. His is a labor of profound patience, a patience that awaits the voice of things themselves. "The poems have a magnificent silence in them, the silence of things that could speak but choose not to." Rilke said of Trakl, "His poetry is to me an object of sublime existence...It occurs to me that his whole work has a parrallel in the aspiration of a Li Po: in both, falling is the pretext for the most continuous ascension. In the history of the poem, Trakl's books are important contributions to the liberation of the poetic image. They seem to me to have mapped out new dimensions of the spirit, and to have disproved that prejudice which judges all poetry in terms of feeling and content only, as if in the direction of lament there were only lament -- but here too there is world again." Wittgenstein, who secretly subsidized the poet, said of his work, "It has the sound of poetry." The present volume is an early publication in the renowned series of Expressionist literature, Der juengste Tag. There are three known presentation copies of this title (there are only eleven presentation copies of anything by Trakl, most of which are offprints of poems published in Ficker's Der Brenner) but none can claim the distinction of the present copy, which is registered in the Historical-Critical Edition of Trakl's Works (volume 2, p. 73). An excellent copy of the rare bound issue of a title ususally found in the issue in printed wrappers.

His own copy, with a corrected poem

• Category: Extraordinary Books, Manuscripts & Art
• Keywords: association copies · first books · german · Manuscripts · poetry · SIGNED
• Language: Englisch
• Inventory number: 5636LB

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