Descrizione

Small 4to. 7 bifolia of wove paper, of which 9 pages with text. With 14 beautiful, partly surreal original watercolours. Written in 1922 for his second wife Ruth Wenger, the fairy tale was published as a facsimile in 1954. Hesse himself wrote in his afterword to this edition: "Until today it was only available as a manuscript. I copied it many times in earlier years and painted little pictures for it, each time something different [.]". - According to Hesse's biographer Joseph Mileck, Hesse made over forty different copies, most of them written by hand, less often as a typescript. The present copy was prepared for the writer and editor Laurenz Wiedner (1903-1958), with whom Hesse was in correspondence in the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1947, Wiedner provided a page of it for an article in the "Wiener Bühne" (issue no. 7) on the occasion of Hesse's 70th birthday. - Outer margins partly somewhat browned, first 7 leaves with creasemarks in margin area at side, 2 leaves with backed marginal tear, cover somewhat soiled and sunned.