Harthren Ernst Translator (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition, Special Edition. 1st Printing. Signed. 637 pages. The German Translation of the Icelandic author's masterpiece. One of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Publisher's Promotional Copy of the First German-Language Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, of which there are many. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. Without DJ, as issued. There is no ISBN. The First Edition is now rare. Presents, in its First Edition collectible format, Halldor (Kiljan) Laxness's "Ljos Heimsins" in a felicitous German translation by Ernst Harthren as "Weltlicht". The latter closely resembles the English translation "World Light" by Magnus Magnusson. Appropriately enough, Halldor Laxness won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955, the novel's year of publication. "A magnificently humane novel: As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation, the belief that one day he will be a great poet. The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny. For in Iceland, poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and the most unpromising human vessel" (Sven Birkerts). According to Harold Bloom, rather than being crushed by the inescapable influence of the great Icelandic sagas, Halldor Laxness "re-imagined" them (that is, rejected them) as modern fictions whose central quality is his novels' "strangeness", that they do not come across as a continuation of Icelandic literary culture at all, but depart from it. It's a view another great critic (who is NOT a fan of Harold Bloom) echoes: A few weeks before she died in 2004, Susan Sontag somehow managed to finish (and hurriedly publish in The New York Times) "A Report On The Journey", one of her most dazzling literary essays, on Halldor Laxness and his novel, "Kristnihald undir Jokli" (translated as "Under The Glacier"; Magnusson removed the reference to Christianity) as one of the greatest, "one-of-a-kind" novels of the 20th century. To be truly "one-of-a-kind" is not only to be different from your culture, but to be original. To be original necessarily means to be strange. Sontag describes Halldor Laxness's originality so eloquently and movingly even as she herself was near-death. "His vivid, epic power has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland" (Nobel Prize Citation). An absolute "must-have" title for Halldor Laxness collectors. This copy is magnificently signed in full in black fountain pen on the title page by the author: "Halldor Kiljan Laxness". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great book. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First German Hardcover Edition/First Printing (1955) available online and is in unusually fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. It looks like it was carefully kept in storage all along (70 years and counting at the time of acquisition, and was - thank goodness - never used or read). If this were the original Icelandic Edition, it would be worth thousands of dollars. It is offered here for the sheer beauty of the copy and the rarity of his signature ON A BOOK, not on a bookplate or ephemera as may be found on eBay and elsewhere online. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. Signed by Author(s).…