Korrespondenzarchiv.
Autograph ist nicht mehr verfügbar
Interesting Thomas Mann correspondence and ephemera archive compiled by Doris Dana, the long-time companion of poet, educator, feminist, Nobel laureate and Chilean diplomat Gabriela Mistral (i. e., Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, 1889-1957), several of whose poems Dana translated and edited. The present collection documents the friendship which Dana entertained with the Mann family in the late 1940s, frequently touching upon her friendship with Gabriela Mistral. In the first correspondence document, written on August 27, 1946, Thomas Mann thanks "Miss Dana" for her "touching letter of August 15th" (not preserved here) and for the "hours we spent with you. - Particularly, I want to express to you, though belatedly, my appreciation of the excellent English translation of the article by Gabriela Mistral. I was deeply moved and surprised about the truly generous warm-heartedness with which this woman comments on my work and existence. Strangely enough: nowadays it is not seldom that people write about me in this tone and style to which I formerly was hardly used. It proves that one only has to persist long enough and people will begin to realize what one means to them." In an autograph letter written two days later, Katia Mann adds her thanks for a set of César Franck records, as well as for "the lovely little Mexican box which arrived two days ago" (receipt included in ephemera coll.). A few months later, Dana sends the Manns an album of Carol Bruce singing Gustav Mahler's "Songs of a Wayfarer" (letter dated. Oct. 16, 1946) and comments on the War Department's plans to translate and reprint her story, "My Soul To Take", in the "'Neue Auslese', a magazine published in Germany and circulated through all four zones of Germany, and Austria, as part of the reeducation program for the occupied areas [...] It is an immense satisfaction and privilege for me to be given a hearing in this way [...] - particularly since it stresses for me the functional aspect of writing [...] Thank you particularly for your appreciation of the article by Gabriela Mistral. To translate such an article was a privilege for me [...], and also a vicarious way of expressing my own feeling on your existence, your work and the things you represent." Mann answered on Nov. 1: "It is amazing that Mahler's musical personality is so completely expressed in these early compositions. The reproduction is excellent, and even the German pronunciation of the singer leaves hardly anything to desire [...] I am working hard on my novel [i. e, Doktor Faustus] which, if I stay well, I hope to finish in the first months of the coming year [...]". After am interval during which Dana has been in contact with the Manns' daughter Monika, Dana resumes the correspondence in March 1948: "I have just received a very warm letter concerning you from Gabriela Mistral [...] As you know, her tribute to you, which I had the honor of translating, appeared in 'The Stature of Thomas Mann.' The letter which she now writes to me expresses a profound appreciation of you + of your work [...] She tells me that she wil be in Los Angeles for a short time at the end of March + asks me if it might be possible for you to see her briefly. Believe me, if it is possible for you to see her I know that it will be a mutually happy meeting - for she is a poet of great genius + strength + magnitude. Monika tells me that you have broken your shoulder recently + suffered badly with it for awhile [...] I am looking forward eagerly to the appearance of the English translation of Dr. Faust. The enthusiastic responses I have heard from my friends who know German, is enough to make me most envious of their knowledge of your language. They say it is by far the best thing you have done. Oh - why have I not learned German! I am impatient to read this new work of yours [...]". Mann replies on March 21st that he immediately wrote to Gabriela Mistral, "asking her to give me a wring [!], when she comes to Los Angeles. I am looking forward to having her as a guest in our home [...] My arm is doing allright, and I think, in a few weeks I may forget about it [...]". - The correspondence with Monika includes three letters; in the first, she asks Dana to "have dinner with me one convenient evening soon - and I wanted to ask you whether it would be possible for you to arrange for me a one week's stay at your country place (from about 15.-23.) [...] It's very important for me!" Characteristically, she states the sender as "Monika Lanyi Mann" - in 1940, the year after their marriage, her husband, the art historian Jenö Lányi, had drowned when a German U-boat sank the ship on which the couple was emigrating to Canada (Monika being among the few survivors). She also misspells Dana's name as "Denah". - Includes four unpublished typed manuscripts by Monika Mann: "Betsy" (5½ pp.), "Circus" (7½ pp.), "Pet Tells his Story" (9½ pp.), and "Racine on the Chief" (5 pp.). They probably were written in 1947/48, when Monika made her first serious attempt at professional writing - much to her parents' chagrin, who did not believe in her talent and feared that uncomfortable family matters might be dragged into the public by their unbeloved daughter. - The collection is supplemented by several ephemera relating to Thomas Mann lectures, at several of which Dana took notes (relating to Nietzsche, Hitler, Roosevelt, the "nobleness of life" that is culture, its association with art and instict, etc.).