Letters by Thomas Mann to Julius Bab Some New Readings

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size NotesThe year "1913" is readable, although Mann's 3 is somewhat peculiar. March 2, 1912 is impossible since "Der Tod in Venedig" was not completed in March of 1912 (see Briefe 1889–1936, p. 93). The public edition of T.i.V. in book form appeared in 1913. A rare private print came out in 1912, but after May 27, when Thomas Mann reports (in an unpublished letter) that printing of the first chapters had started. The letters to Bab of January 15, 1913 (Briefe 1889–1936, p. 101), January 21, 1913 (letter V, see below) and this letter form a logical sequence.The date can read 1912, 1913, and 1917. Only 1913 is possible: The address Mauerkircherstr. 13 was valid only to May 1913. From December 1913 until 1933 the permanent address was Poschingerstr. 1 (in the interval the family lived in Bad T ölz).The letter refers to Mann's "Berliner Abenteuer" obviously as having recently occurred. This is the performance of Fiorenza on January 3, 1913 (Briefe 1889–1936, p. 98) and Kerr's review (ibid., p. 100).Mann had asked Bab on January 15, 1913 to read his "Tod in Venedig" in the Neue Rundschau (Briefe 1889–1936, p. 101). The story had appeared there in October and November 1912. On March 2, 1913, Mann sent Bab a copy of the public edition which had just appeared. Since letter V refers both to Bab's reading of "Tod in Venedig" and to the fact that the book had not been published yet, the letter could be written only in the period from November 1912 to March 1913. The abbreviated name of the month refers to January. Thus only the date January 21, 1913 is possible

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