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Lot 292
Nordau, Max Simon (1849-1923) Zionist leader, physician, author, and social critic, born Simon Maximilian Südfeld in Pest, Hungary. He was a co-founder of the World Zionist Organization, together with Theodor Herzl, and president or vice president of several Zionist congresses.
A 91 letter archive totaling 336pp of purple penned love letters from German physician and writer Max Nordau to Sara Hutzler while the two were having a long distance love affair. Nordau's letters, written between 1881 and 1885 from Paris, are a commentary on Jewish tradition and profess a great love for Hutzler.
In 1880, after serving as Viennese correspondent for a Budapest newspaper, Nordau settled in Paris where he established a medical practice. He achieved great success in 1883 with Die Conventionellen Luger der Kulturmenschheit (the Conventional Lies of Our Civilization), an attack on the inadequacy of 19th-century institutions to meet human needs, in which he took a particularly harsh look at organized religion. The book was banned in Russia and Austria but was translated into numerous languages and went into 73 editions. In 1881 Nordau fell in love with a German woman named Hutzler. At the time, Nordau was a 32-year-old bachelor living in Paris and working on his doctorate under a teacher who was also the mentor of Sigmund Freud. Hutzler was a 28-year-old divorcee living in Berlin where she authored children's books. Nordau and Hutzler used to meet between Berlin and Paris, in Cologne. Nordau wrote in German, usually in purple ink with a lot of exclamation points to emphasize his love for Hutzler. He wrote to her about cultural issues that preoccupied him and his superficial attitude towards Jewish Tradition. It is not known how Hutzler and Nordau ended their relationship but Hutzler married actor Joseph Kainz in 1886.
The letters, all in German, are presented in 4 volume portfolio books in order of their correspondence. Volume I contains 22 letters totaling 81 pages, dated from Sept. 25, 1881 - Dec. 29, 1881. Volume II contains 23 letters totaling 86 pp, dated Jan. 2 - March 15, 1882. Volume III contains 23 letters totaling 81pp, dated March 19 - July 3, 1882. Volume V contains 10 letters totaling 34 pp, dated 1883 - 1885. Volume IV contains 13 letters totaling 54pp, dated 1882. A sample letter has been fully translated. The 4pp ALS mentions Hutzler's working projects such as "Lila" and "Tägliche Rundscha". The letter is dated October 5, 1882 from Rue Paris and reads in part, "My Sarahchen, if only I were reassured about the state of your health! I don't know why, but I no longer have that nice feeling of confidence, and when I don't have a letter from you all day long, I start to have dismal thoughts…. Last evening I read "Zeit ist Geld" [Time Is Money] and "Neujahr in Amerika" [New Year in America] for the second time and the four portraits of "Young Amerika" for the first time. "Young Amerika" is really cute, but it runs on too long…. What a shame that I can't always be with you when you work! The more I read of you, the more I am convinced that you have tremendous talent; but you haven't had the time for gradual maturing that we who started writing at the age of ten or twelve had. A benevolent but serious critic must try to counter your lack of practice and experience. There is just one characteristic that betrays your inexperience, and that is the lengthy descriptions of secondary things. The idea is always nice, and here and there a surprisingly great power of perception and representation breaks through…all these are mature and show great talent. It's just that one characteristic that gives cause for comment. ….I'd like to have a look at all the material you have in mind for the book. One has to be able to tell the publisher about how many sheets of paper he'll have to buy. Tell me, Sarahchen, has Pollachek already paid you for the Tägliche Rundschau novella, and has "Lila" already started to run in the Zürcher Post? Oh, if only you knew what a bad mood I'm in today! ….And to know that somewhere there is an eye into which I need only look to be happy and a lap in which I need only lay my heavy head to have it become light at once-and to know that life is so short and allows so little time to atone for foolish acts and omissions! …." The "Tägliche Rundscha" was an East German newspaper. Another letter dated February 1882 from Paris mentions Nordau's medical dissertation under Jean-Martin Charcot, "De la castration de la femme."
The letters have never been published or fully translated, making this the most private archive in private hands. Partial translations obtained shed an interesting light on Nordau's relationship with Sara and a more in-depth look into his views of Judaism. One letter dated Sept. 13, 1882 has Nordau's casual remarks about "the Jewish New Year - it seems." Another letter from Paris dated March 7, 1882 talks about a friend of his trying to play matchmaker, " My old sir Bill wants to marry me off. to a young girl from Wales, 21 years old. Sir Bill has no idea that I'm Jewish." In one letter dated March 15, 1882, Nordau writes, "In one week a whole new life begins ." Nordau writes that he will know in one week whether or not he can make it to Rome. A March 2, 1882 letter where Sara mentions that she has to write on the Morality of George Sand. A couple of letters allude to Sara's marriage, from which she had two children. In one letter Sara tells Max he has to "release her" so she could be "a normal mother" to her children. In another letter Nordau tells Sara to "go back to your husband now that he has a good income." In another letter Nordau comments about the disparaging letter his mother wrote Sara. In one letter dated Oct. 1, 1882, Nordau appears to be angry with a man named Salo. He writes, "That Salo is no Jew - I don't really know. Since when has he been a Christian?" he later mention a person named Schloemp with whom he is very angry (could be author Felix Schloemp). Letters also mention: Lipot Schulhof, a Hungarian astronomer; Honorable Howard Spensley, an English newspaperman and politician; and Joseph Kirschner, an author and publisher who turned down Sara's book, Lila. Due to the fact the letters have only been partially translated, this archive is virtually an untapped resource, ripe for translation and research into a remarkable life.
Estimated Value $25,000 - 30,000.
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