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Description
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KAFKA, Franz (1883-1924). Typescript signed ('Franz Kafka') of his short story 'Ein Traum' [A Dream], [Prague, 1916], six typographical emendations in autograph, including the insertion of the word 'und', 2A1/2 pages, folio (338 x 211mm), on rectos only of a bifolium and a single sheet, printer's annotations ('Einfache Petit'), numbered '3'in pencil at upper margin of p.1, with a note of the publication by 'Selbstwehr. Das jA1/4d[ische] Prag'. Provenance: Siegmund Kaznelson (1893-1959) -- presented to an unidentified collector by Kaznelson in Berlin, March/April 1936 (note in Hebrew at foot of manuscript) -- a distinguished Israeli collection. 'Josef K. trAumte ...': Kafka's eerie evocation of a dream, in which Josef K. walks on a beautiful day in a cemetery, only to be confronted by his own freshly-dug grave. Although the use of the character 'Josef K.' suggests a connection with Kafka's novel The Trial, 'Ein Traum' does not obviously conform to the structure and narrative viewpoint of the novel, and seems always to have been a distinct work. The piece first appeared in the collection Das jA1/4dische Prag, published in Prague by the editors of the Zionist journal Selbstwehr early in 1917. It is apparent that the present, previously untraced typescript is the one sent by Kafka for this purpose: not only does the recorded provenance go back to the editor of Selbstwehr, Siegmund Kaznelson, but the text of the typescript conforms precisely with the variants of the Das jA1/4dische Prag version (notably 'anderen' for 'andern' on f.2, lines 22-3). Two other typescripts of the story (one known only from a photocopy) are recorded by the editors of the Schriften (Drucke zu Lebzeiten. Apparatband, S. Fischer, 1992, p. 356ff): like those, the present version bears minor typographical corrections in Kafka's hand; the paper size of the present typescript is very close to that of their T1. According to ABPC-online/Americana Exchange NO COMPARABLE TYPESCRIPT BY KAFKA HAS BEEN OFFERED AT AUCTION IN THE LAST 40 YEARS.
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