"painting my little pictures" Hesse, Hermann, poet, writer and draughtsman, Nobel Prize winner (1877-1962). Collection of 14 letters and 1 portrait photo postcard, 13 of which are machine-written letters, 1 letter and the portrait card by hand. 20 S. With 1 original spring drawing and 1 original watercolour. I don't know. Formats. Loose Bl. in a light brown leather folder from the beginning with imprint "Hermann Hesse. (Mondaynola and o.o.) 1928-1934. Mostly very extensive and rich letters to Mrs M. M. Redlhammer in Gablonz (Neisse). On a signed portrait photo postcard (probably Zurich 1928) the poet mentions - for the first time in this series of letters - his growing eye problems. "... My friend [Ninon Dolbin] is leaving these days for 3 weeks, during which time I am without reading help. So far, only one day without pain. I probably go to Montagnola at the beginning of May ...". In the following letters, he calms her with regard to his eye disease. "... What you say about my eyes and my illness is hard to answer. I receive almost daily letters that sound similar, also from those who have known the state of my eyes and my whole life for many years: they all pretend to have to stop tomorrow or the day after ..." (this letter fragmentary, but with watercolor "Landscape in Ticino"). "... I'm still in Zurich for about 10 days. My girlfriend (who, by the way, has been making a lot of efforts for a year to get my food and to me all kinds of cream etc) is in Berlin for some time, where your show will have surprised you. - There are currently three ready-made copies of the 'Piktor'. I'll send you one of these days. The fairy tale is particularly suitable for being spoken aloud, but because of my eyes you don't have to fear that painting and writing will spoil them. On the contrary: just now that I can't read anything at all, painting my little pictures and that bit [!] writing is the occupation that keeps me above water. Of course, another occupation would be even more beautiful: the one with a new seal. But it takes patience. For the time being Goldmund has died, and since then, for more than a year, I am not without work (I could never tolerate that) but without a big, meaningful, important work. And in these times the making of the small picture manuscripts to me is a loving and not exhausting occupation ...". In 1929 he thanked him for paying for his picture manuscripts. "... I hope you have some friends on the poetry manuscripts. I wrote the 'seducer' extra, in Antiqua, because it will be more familiar to you and since this poem was written specifically at your request. The other poems are written in fracturing, as this is the usual script. - In spring I finished a rather extensive new poem, the 'Goldmund', I worked on it for more than two years, it will be published next year as a book ...". In September 1929 Hesse reported on his son Bruno's visit to Montagnola, his training as a painter, draftsman and eraser, and their joint trips to "skizieren". In another letter (from the Swiss town of Baden) he goes into the somewhat disappointing volume "Last Mature", which contains the story "Traumfahrte" by Hesse: "... I gave a contribution to this, once in order not to separate myself in the midst of the Swiss colleagues, and then because this story ... is especially dear to me ... I think this little story, except for the morning voyage, is the best I've written in recent years ...". ==References== In November 1929, he wrote from Zurich: "... I just have a little trip behind me, I come back from Swabia, where I gave three lectures: one in Tübingen and two in Stuttgart ... I saw my two sisters and one of my brothers, and their children, saw some schoolmates from Calw, Maulbronn and Tübingen, as well as some landscapes that were once dear and familiar to me, including Ulm and Blaubeuren, which I visited on the way back ...". In December 1929 Hesse deals with Hugo Ball and his widow Emmy. "... You have read the steppe wolf, and the majority of my poems and the Nuremberg journey and other things - so you know well that my life is neither beautiful nor happy, but a constant suffering. There's no point in lying that away. I find no air to breathe in our world and time - just as Hugo Ball is starving materially, so I starve mentally ... His widow, my dear worry child, has been living mostly in my Ticino area since then. She leads her life far away from the world, it is the same as she once brought it together with Hugo, it consists of much loneliness, much dream, much spiritual work, and persistent, bitter poverty." Then describes Emmy Ball's miserable life with her daughter, together in a single, "tiny room." - On the Goethe year 1932 Hesse writes: "... I watch the Goethe Theatre amused. The German people, never very happy in spirit and culture, intend to expose Goethe, who was theoretically revered and actually rejected by him, to a tremendous test of stress. If Goethe endures this year 1932, he is truly immortal." He also reports on Emmy Ball and her daughter in August 1933. In another letter, he asks for financial help for Emmy Ball and reports that he will move "now his bread will be richly earned again", and in the future only wants to spend the summer in the extremely inhospitable, cold apartment in Montagnola. - Probably 1933 or 1934 Hesse comments on Hitler's seizure of power in Germany. "... Of course, the German events are in the foreground for me. The outbreak of white terror threatens me and my publisher too, of course, but at the moment there is the concern for close friends, colleagues etc. ... Germany was never as friendly to the spirit as it liked to be in his big talk, but it has never been so systematically hostile to the mind and culture. We have war again, and again he goes against us, against the peaceful, the thinkers and the pious. It must be endured ...". At the same time, he laments the politically conditioned decline in his income and promotes subscriptions to his illustrated poem copies: "These ... cost: written by hand 200 to 250 francs, written with machine 150 francs." The last letter is handwritten and addressed to Fritz Redlhammer, now widowed: "... Without ever seeing Mrs. Redlhammer, I have from her letters a very vivid picture of her, and for her impulsive, original and so kind kind kind way of adoration. So also the dear & venerated ones will not be forgotten by me ...". Some, albeit insignificant, shortcomings: a letter lacks the conclusion; two letters lack the signature, although it is undoubtedly the originals; sometimes small marginal defects. - Including about 25 newspaper articles by and about Hermann Hesse, most of them in initial prints. - The important collection of letters in which the poet has his existence, thinking and creativity in presented in an unusual way, offers valuable insights into Hermann Hesse's existence in a crisis-ridden era in Europe.