German Children's and Youth Literature in Exile 1933-1950: Biographies and Bibliographies by Zlata Fuss Phillips (review)

Abstract

MLRy 98.1, 2003 241 Stokes's book is an achievement, but it is at times marred by embarrassing theoretical and linguistic blunders. The Queen's College, Oxford Stefan Busch German Children's and Youth Literature in Exile ig33-ig^o: Biographies and Biblio? graphies. By ZlataFussPhillips. Munich: Saur. 2001.318pp. ?110. ISBN3598 -11569-5. In the last few years there have been two major exhibitions devoted to the subject of German and Austrian children's and young people's literature, written, illustrated and published in exile after 1933, the firstin Leipzig in 1995, the second in Vienna in 1999. Before then, as the author of this volume rightly indicates, the whole area of children's literature in exile had been ignored or overlooked. One of the firststudies of exile literature, F. C. Weiskopf's Unter fremdem Himmel: ein Abrifi der deutschen Literatur im Exil ig33~ig47 (Berlin: Dietz, 1948), had one chapter entitled 'Fiirs Kind und ftirdie reifere Jugend'. Weiskopf listed twelve authors and a few of their best-known works for children. Although in the intervening years various studies appeared in the two Germanies and in Austria, the leap from twelve authors to the 101 emigres represented in this handbook is enormous. About fortyof these authors and illustrators settled in the USA, twenty in the UK. The range of countries of exile identified thereafter is vast: many moved to Continental Europe, many to central and South America. Some well-known publishers were involved, but the compiler has shown admirable assiduity in discovering children's literature in the most unlikely places. Switzerland tops the list, the Sauerlander Verlag being the publisher with the largest number of books listed in this handbook. Each entry consists of a biography of the author or illustrator and bibliographical descriptions of his or her books. Where possible, a summary is given of the plot. The compiler has also hunted out photographs of the authors. Some entries may come as a surprise: Bertolt Brecht, for example, as a writer of children's literature? But, of course, he was the author of the 'Kinderlieder' in the Svendborger Gedichte (London: Malik, 1939) and of the 'Kinderkreuzzug 1939' (The German American (New York), 1, no. 8 (1942), 8-9). The very next entry is for Willi Bredel, better known for his concentration-camp novel Die Prufung than for his work for children. Few authors were particularly successful in this genre, but there were exceptions, such as Bettina (properly Bettina Ehrlich), the wife of the sculptor and artist Georg Ehrlich. Erna Pinner too became enormously successful as a result of her illustrations for Felix Salten's Bambi's Children, translated by Barthold Fles, edited by R. Sugden Tilly, firstpublished in New York and Indianapolis by Bobbs-Merrill (c. 1939). Another blessed with success was Walter Trier, memorable for his association with Erich Kastner. Trier settled in England and became a cartoonist and illustrator; he later died in Canada. The longest entry is that for Rafaello Busoni (born into a family of famous musicians), who reached the USA by way of Sweden. All works listed in this handbook are given a location and for him, as for so many others, it is the Walter Library at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Writers and illustrators in exile had to find a means of survival. Some listed here had been involved in children's literature before, some discovered this market niche in exile. Clearly for many the training they had received in the arts and crafts of design in the colleges of Germany and Austria proved an excellent grounding and a saleable skill gratefully received in their countries of asylum. Zlata Fuss Phillips 242 Reviews is to be commended for the immaculate manner in which she has recorded all the wonderful work of the authors and illustrators in this corner of the world of exile. Institute of Germanic Studies, London J. M. Ritchie Am stiirzenden Pfad: Gesammelte Gedichte. By Franz Baermann Steiner. Ed. by Jeremy Adler. (Veroffentlichungen der Deutschen Akademie fur Sprache und Dichtung Darmstadt, 76) Gottingen: Wallstein. 2000. 493 pp. ?35. ISBN 389244 -411-0 (hbk). The poetry of Franz Baermann Steiner (1909-52), an exile from Prague who taught...