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Strindberg - Important ALS & AD

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,500.00 USD Estimated At:3,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Strindberg - Important ALS & AD
<Our item number 109835><B>Strindberg Refers to Till Damascus and Answers 29 Personal Questions.</B> &#40;1849-1912&#41; Swedish writer, playwright, and painter; one of the founders of modern theatre, especially important in the movement of expressionism. Autograph Letter Signed to Danish art critic and author Georg Brochner, in Swedish, one page, 5&#34; x 4½&#34;, Lund, 27 May 1899. With an Autograph Document 14½&#34; x 8¾&#34;, in Swedish, no date &#40;1899&#41;. Both very fine; both with English translations. <BR><BR>The letter refers to Part I of the dramatic trilogy <I>Till Damascus</I>, written in the years 1898-1904. In part: &#34;<I>Hereby the requested improvements. Alas, I have also made a few additions. The piece I expecially wanted to have played was <I>Damascus</I>, <I>since it is new</I>….&#34; The letter is affixed at the top edge to a folded 14¾&#34; x 9&#34; page which contains 29 questions put to Strindberg by Brochner, in Brochner&#39;s hand. The answers Strindbe rg gives, on a separate page, reveal important insights into Strindberg, the man and the writer. The first question is, &#34;What is the main trait in your character?&#34; and Strindberg answers, &#34;<I>This strange blending of the deepest melancholy and the most astonishing light-heartedness</I>.&#34; Other questions ask about Strindberg&#39;s favorite musical compositions &#40;Beethoven&#39;s Sonatas&#41;, paintings &#40;Théodore Rousseau&#39;s &#34;Paysages Intimes&#34; and several by Bõcklin&#41;, books &#40;he names several authors, including Chateaubriand, Swedenborg, Victor Hugo, Dickens, Kipling, etc.&#41;, as well as the characteristics Strindberg most values in a man &#40;absence of narrow-mindedness&#41; and in a woman &#40;motherliness&#41;, his favorite occupation &#40;writing dramas&#41;, his favorite English writer &#40;Dickens&#41; and painter &#40;Turner&#41;, the social reform he would most like to see accomplished &#40;disarmament&#41;, the greatest ha ppiness he could imagine &#40;to be nobody&#39;s enemy and to have no enemies&#41;, and his motto &#40;Speravit infestis--&#34;He was hopeful in adversity,&#34; from Horace&#41;.<BR><BR>Strindberg&#39;s responses to Brochner&#39;s questions were not published until the day of Strindberg&#39;s funeral, appearing in the <I>Svenska Dagbladet</I> on 28 February 1912 &#40;a clipping of this article is present&#41;. Michael Myer&#39;s authoritative biography of Strindberg gives an account of this document. The Royal Library in Stockholm has a manuscript of the English translation of Strindberg&#39;s answers in an unidentified hand, which Strindberg altered and copied; however, the document presented here is Strindberg&#39;s original manuscript with his response to Brochner&#39;s questions. <BR>Estimated Value &#36;3,000-5,000. <BR><BR>Our item number 109835<BR><IMAGES><P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="http://64.60.141.195/photos/40jpegs/109835.jpg"> </P></IMAGES>