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The Leonard Lopate Show / August 13, 2007 / Underappreciated: Stefan Zweig

Underappreciated: Stefan Zweig

Monday, August 13, 2007

In 1930, Stefan Zweig was considered the world's most translated author, with a circle of friends that included Rainer Maria Rilke, Auguste Rodin, and Sigmund Freud. Yet when he was forced into exile from his native Austria during World War II, Zweig's work faded from view, even more so after his suicide in 1942. George Prochnik, who is working on a book about Stefan and Lotte Zweig, will tell us why the author deserves a revival.

Purchase Zweig's major works - Amok, Beware of Pity, Chess Story, and The World of Yesterday - at amazon.com.

Weigh in: Who's your favorite underappreciated author?


Comments

  • [1] Robert Mancell from Westchester Community College August 13, 2007 - 12:47PM

    Interesting aspect of Zweig's last days: He wrote his autobiography in Ossining, NY shortly before his fateful trip to Brazil. Thanks! Bob Mancell
  • [2] Jose Armando Jeronymo from Botucatu, ,Brazil August 13, 2007 - 12:54PM

    I was born in the town where Zweigh's lived and died in Brazil. It may be of interest to know that at that time, so my father tells me, German, not Portuguese, was spoken in that part of the town and that before Brazil joined the Allied in WWII there were much Nazi activity and some jewish persecution in Brazil.

    In Brazil this persecution is understood to be one of the reasons of his suicide.
  • [3] Larry List from Manhattan August 13, 2007 - 12:55PM

    As the curator of The Imagery of Chess Revisited exhibition about chess and the surrealists in New York in 1944, I know that all the major emigre artists read Zweig's "The Royal Game" (1942) and that a copy was exhibited in the 1944 exhibition, The Imagery of Chess at the Julien Levy Gallery (curated by Max Ernst & Duchamp). It has been re-published as "The Royal Game"in English by Pushkin Press, London, 2001 and as "Chess Story", with an introduction by Peter Gay by New York Review of Books Classics, 2006. His novella, "Letter From an Unknown Woman" was made into a film...

    Thanks for talking about Zweig again - he is a major talent.

    Larry List
  • [4] Don Hagar from Brooklyn August 13, 2007 - 01:02PM

    I'm listening to your show about Zweig. I wasn't surprised to hear that Strauss threatened to withdraw when Zweig's name was blotted off the program. Even though Strauss was cultural representative of Nazi Germany, his relationship with the Nazis was tenuous at best by the end of the regime. Strauss' wife's family was Jewish, and when one of her relatives was imprisoned, Strauss went to the government to get him out. He was successful, but was then eyed with some contempt by the Nazis. We must not forget that Strauss was in no way sympathetic to the Nazis.

    Thanks!

    Don Hagar
  • [5] FELIPE from COLOMBIA SUR AMERICA September 10, 2007 - 11:40AM

    lei el libro de Zweig El Mundo de Ayer y pude conocer casi que en persona a Stefan Zweig al recorrer las lineas. Vi en el un señor supremamente educado, culto y pacifico, amante de la vida y la naturaleza.

    Pude observar que no tenia ni la mas minima idea de que los nazis habian asesinado a tantas personas judias y que sufrio mucho con saber que la guerra estaba dejando muertos por doquier, sin distingos de nacionalidades.

    El sabia muy bien que el ser humano tiene su propio espiritu de bondad


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