Handmade Illustrated Books of Ludwig and George Wronkow

WRONKOW, Ludwig and George

Publication Date: 1981

About this Item

Sixteen handmade illustrated books, dated 1972-1981, from brothers Ludwig and George Wronkow, German-Jewish émigrés who worked as editors for the New York-based German-speaking newspaper *Aufbau*. Each book is written in German and profusely decorated with color drawings, tipped in photographs, canceled checks, embellished newspaper clippings, collages, and various found objects, such as pins, cut-up playing cards, miniature hats and electronics components, all illustrating stories, poems, and political commentary. Ludwig and George were journalists who worked for the left-leaning Mosse publishing house in Berlin during the 1920s and 1930s, with Ludwig also contributing cartoons. With the rise of Hitler in 1933, they fled Germany. They went first to Paris, where they worked in radio and newspapers before finally emigrating to the U.S. in 1938. Upon their arrival they began writing for *Aufbau*, a German-Jewish newsletter that became the leading international anti-Nazi publication with contributions from many noted exiles such as Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, and Stefan Zweig. In the year immediately after the war, the newspaper was the leading source of information on Jewish survivors. The brothers wrote for the newspaper for several decades, with Ludwig eventually becoming its editor-in-chief. He died in 1982 at age 80. George's late 1960s contributions to the Swiss paper *Die Tat* were collected in the 1969 book *Leben mit dem Hass [Live with the Hate]*, and his autobiography, *Kleiner Mann In Groen Zeiten: Reportagen Eines Lebens [Little Man in Big Times: Reports of a Life]* was published posthumously in 2008. He died in 1989 at age 84. Each book is an oblong quarto with spiral bindings, except for two with velvet wrappers and string tied pages. The page count varies but most average 24pp., some with blank versos. They average near fine with some wear to the extremities and nearly all with some loss or detached drawings, though this is minimal and usually the item is still present. Six of the books appear to be from Ludwig and the rest from George. Many of the stories feature a hat theme, which appears to be the annual birthday gift the brothers gave to one another. How these illustrated books factor into that annual gift isn't clear but several of the books contained Signed checks from one brother to the other for the price of a hat. A few of the most notable highlights from the books are a story about hats fleeing Europe from the Nazis, several pages concerning Nixon's impeachment, and the 1977 book from Ludwig which features not only especially accomplished drawings but a die-cut cover revealing a drawing found on the first page. A delightfully quirky and beautiful set of gift books from two German-Jewish brothers who escaped the Nazis and devoted their lives to helping the scattered Jewish survivors of post-war Europe. Seller Inventory # 341471

Bibliographic Details

Title: Handmade Illustrated Books of Ludwig and ...

Publication Date: 1981

Condition: Near Fine