{"product_id":"else-lasker-schuler-s-hebraische-balladen","title":"Else Lasker-Schüler’s Hebräische Balladen","description":"\u003ch3\u003eA Rare First Edition in the Original Author-Illustrated Brochure\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLASKER-SCHÜLER, Else. \u003cem\u003eHebräische Balladen.\u003c\/em\u003e Berlin: Alfred Richard Meyer, 1913.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rare and beautiful first edition of one of the defining works of German-Jewish Expressionist poetry: Else Lasker-Schüler’s \u003cem\u003eHebräische Balladen\u003c\/em\u003e, issued in 1913 as part of Alfred Richard Meyer’s avant-garde \u003cem\u003eLyrische Flugblätter\u003c\/em\u003e series and preserved here in its original author-illustrated brochure, elegantly housed within a fine full maroon morocco binding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhysically slight yet poetically immense, \u003cem\u003eHebräische Balladen\u003c\/em\u003e stands among the most concentrated expressions of Lasker-Schüler’s visionary literary world: biblical memory, mystical longing, exile, erotic intensity, sacred imagination, and poetic self-mythology fused into a language unlike anything else in twentieth-century German literature. The survival of the fragile original brochure with Lasker-Schüler’s own cover illustration gives the present copy exceptional literary and visual appeal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEdition \u0026amp; Physical Description\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst edition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEight leaves. Original cord-stitched brochure with cover illustration by Else Lasker-Schüler. Issued in Berlin by Alfred Richard Meyer in 1913 as number 25 of the \u003cem\u003eLyrische Flugblätter\u003c\/em\u003e series. Format approximately 18 × 14 cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe original brochure is preserved within a fine full maroon morocco binding with gilt-stamped cover title, gilt spine title, gilt year to the lower board, and green silk ribbon marker. Importantly, the fragile original publication remains removable from the protective binding without damage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe elegant morocco case gives the ephemeral Expressionist booklet the physical dignity and permanence appropriate to a major work of literary modernism while preserving the integrity of the original issue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eElse Lasker-Schüler\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElse Lasker-Schüler remains one of the most singular figures in twentieth-century literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePoet, draftswoman, performer, visionary, and self-created myth, she occupied the centre of the Berlin avant-garde before the First World War and moved among figures such as Karl Kraus, Gottfried Benn, Franz Werfel, Georg Trakl, Oskar Kokoschka, Franz Marc, and Herwarth Walden. Yet even within that extraordinary milieu, her voice remained radically unique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer poetry fuses biblical imagery, dream logic, erotic longing, mystical intensity, Jewish sacred memory, and private mythology into a lyrical language of startling emotional immediacy. She transformed loneliness, exile, love, poverty, and spiritual hunger into a personal symbolic universe populated by poetic alter egos such as Jussuf of Egypt, Tino of Baghdad, and the Prince of Thebes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor Lasker-Schüler, poetry and life were inseparable acts of imaginative self-creation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cem\u003eHebräische Balladen\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublished in 1913, \u003cem\u003eHebräische Balladen\u003c\/em\u003e marks one of the high points of Lasker-Schüler’s poetic achievement and one of the defining works of German-Jewish modernism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe poems draw deeply upon biblical figures and Hebrew sacred memory, yet they do so in a manner entirely unlike conventional religious poetry. Abraham, Joseph, Esther, Moses, Isaac, and Jacob appear not as distant scriptural characters but as emotionally immediate visionary presences charged with modern psychological and spiritual intensity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe “ballads” are dramatic less in narrative structure than in emotional and symbolic force. The Hebrew Bible becomes a personal landscape of exile, chosenness, suffering, longing, divine intimacy, betrayal, and revelation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe figure of Joseph held especially profound importance for Lasker-Schüler, who later adopted the poetic identity of “Jussuf of Egypt.” In these poems, the dreamer cast out by the world becomes a central symbolic figure: solitary, wounded, visionary, and transformed through suffering.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAppearing on the eve of the First World War, the collection now reads with extraordinary prophetic force. Themes of exile, alienation, displacement, spiritual homelessness, and survival resonate with haunting historical intensity in retrospect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKarl Kraus\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe printed dedication “Karl Kraus zum Geschenk” gives the volume additional literary resonance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKarl Kraus, the formidable Viennese critic and editor of \u003cem\u003eDie Fackel\u003c\/em\u003e, was among Lasker-Schüler’s earliest and most important champions. He published her work, defended her genius publicly, and supported her during periods of financial hardship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dedication therefore places the fragile booklet directly within the central literary networks of pre-war German-speaking modernism. The copy becomes not merely a first edition, but an artifact of the intimate artistic relationships that shaped Expressionist literary culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Author’s Illustration\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe original wrapper illustration by Lasker-Schüler herself is especially important.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer drawings were never merely decorative additions to the poems but extensions of the same symbolic and visionary world. Image and text function together: poetic identity becomes visual emblem, and biblical mythology merges with private self-fashioning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCopies preserving the original illustrated wrappers are therefore especially desirable, since they preserve both dimensions of Lasker-Schüler’s artistic imagination simultaneously.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCondition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery good to near fine overall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe original brochure remains complete and remarkably well preserved for such a fragile pre-war publication. Leaves lightly toned throughout, as usual, with minor edge wear, gentle waviness, slight creasing, and some rectangular offsetting or shadowing to facing leaves. Small closed marginal tear or nick to one leaf without affecting text or illustration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe later maroon morocco binding is fine, elegant, and highly protective while allowing the original booklet to remain removable without damage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rare and highly evocative first edition of one of the central works of German-Jewish Expressionist poetry, preserving the original author-illustrated brochure within an exceptional modern morocco binding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReferences\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWilpert-Gühring² 8; Raabe 182.8; Josch D 42.1; Raabe, \u003cem\u003eZeitschriften\u003c\/em\u003e, 144, 25. \u003cem\u003eLyrische Flugblätter\u003c\/em\u003e, no. 25.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46864655745212,"sku":null,"price":550.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/else-1.png?v=1779654360","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/else-lasker-schuler-s-hebraische-balladen","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}