Bücher von Hans Keilson

Published when the author was just twenty-three, Life Goes On was Hans Keilson's literary debut, an extraordinary autobiographical novel that paints a dark yet illuminating portrait of Germany between the world wars. It is the story of Herr Seldersen-a Jewish store owner modeled on Keilson's father, a textile merchant and decorated World War I veteran-along with his wife and son, Albrecht, and the troubles they encounter as the German economy collapses and politics turn rancid.The book was banned by the Nazis in 1934. Shortly afterward, following his editor's advice, Keilson emigrated to the Netherlands, where he would spend the rest of his life.Life Goes On is an essential volume for readers of Keilson's later work. At the age of one hundred, with his one copy of the first edition of Life Goes On in hand, Keilson told The New York Times that he would love to see his first novel reissued, and translated as well. "Then you would have my whole biography," he told them. He died at the age of one hundred and one.

"[1944 Diary] is a deeply personal account, made even more remarkable that it was written during World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust . . . A moving and fascinating read." -Library JournalIn 2010, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published two novels by the German-Jewish writer Hans Keilson: Comedy in a Minor Key-written in 1944 while Keilson was in hiding in the Netherlands, first published in German in 1947, and never before in English-and The Death of the Adversary, begun in 1944 and published in 1959, also in German. With their Chekhovian sympathy for perpetrators and bystanders as well as for victims and resisters, Keilson's novels were, as Francine Prose said on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, "masterpieces" by "a genius" on her list of "the world's very greatest writers." Keilson was one hundred years old, alive and well and able to enjoy his belated fame.1944 Diary, rediscovered among Keilson's papers shortly after his death, covers nine months he spent in hiding in Delft with members of a Dutch resistance group, having an affair with a younger Jewish woman in hiding a few blocks away and striving to make a moral and artistic life for himself as the war and the Holocaust raged around him. For readers familiar with Keilson's novels as well as those new to his work, this diary is an incomparable spiritual X-ray of the mind and heart behind the art: a record of survival and creativity in what Keilson called "the most critical year of my life."Offering further insight into Keilson are the sonnets he wrote for his lover, Hanna Sanders, which appear in translation at the back of this volume.

Hans Keilson erzählt die Geschichte einer Jugend vor dem Hintergrund der Wirtschaftskrise der zwanziger Jahre. Aufbruch und Niedergang verschränken sich auf poetische Weise und beschreiben, aus der Perspektive eines jungen Mannes in der Provinz, die Atmosphäre der Weimarer Republik. >Das Leben geht weiter< erschien 1933 und war Hans Keilsons erster Roman.Gleichzeitig erscheinen von Hans Keilson der Erinnerungsband >Da steht mein Haus< und der Essayband >Kein Plädoyer für eine LuftschaukelKomödie in Moll< und der Roman >Der Tod des Widersachers

Hans Keilson analysiert die massiv-kumulative Traumatisierung bei Kindern am Beispiel der jüdischen Kriegswaisen in den Niederlanden in je einem deskriptiv-klinischen und einem quantifizierend-statistischen Untersuchungsgang. Zugleich überprüft er damit die Hypothesen der altersspezifischen Traumatisierung sowie einen Teil der psychoanalytischen Theorie der Traumatisierungsintensität.

Written while Hans Keilson was in hiding during World War II, The Death of the Adversary is the self-portrait of a young man helplessly fascinated by an unnamed "adversary" whom he watches rise to power in 1930s Germany. It is a tale of horror, not only in its evocation of Hitler's gathering menace but also in its hero's desperate attempt to discover logic where none exists. A psychological fable as wry and haunting as Badenheim 1939, The Death of the Adversary is a lost classic of modern fiction.