Joseph Roth - Joseph Roth - A Life in Letters

Please forgive me for taking advantage of your goodness, and till soon, I hope,

Sincerely,

your old Joseph Roth

453. To Stefan Zweig

[Paris] 10 October 1938

Dear friend,

of course I’ll talk to your wife. I have never — long before the catastrophe — had any understanding of furniture and the like. I shit on furniture. I hate houses. I will tell your wife.

I don’t see, dear friend, why you describe our situation as “hopeless.” If it is, then only because you make it so: we have the duty, the absolute duty, to show not the least pessimism.

The Mexican president of police wrote to me spontaneously . I can befriend him right away. He is an old Austrian officer.

Our situation is by no means as hopeless as you would have it. You are a defeatist.

In spite of which, I remain sincerely

your Joseph Roth

454. To Heinrich, Count Degenfeld

18 rue de Tournon

Paris 6e

Paris, 6 November 381

His Grace,

Heinrich, Count Degenfeld2

Chateau Steenockerzeel near Brussels

Your Grace,

my friend Mr. Klaus Dohrn tells me that His Majesty, our Emperor, expresses the wish that I may recover my health, and accept medical advice.

I beg you, Your Grace, to give His Majesty my sincerest thanks, and assure him that I will of course obey any order3 he cares to give me.

In particular I am delighted that His Majesty calls upon me to visit you in the course of the next week. I am moved in the extreme by the kindness of His Majesty in drawing your attention to me.

With thanks for your trouble, and your humble servant,

Your [Joseph Roth]

1. Paris, 6 November 38: one day later, Herschel Grynszpan, a young Polish Jew, shot a secretary of the German embassy in Paris. That provided the Nazis with the pretext for instigating pogroms against Jews in what became known as Kristallnacht (9–10 November).

2. Count Degenfeld: Count Degenfeld-Schonburg (born 1890) was first Otto von Habsburg’s tutor (in 1922), then became his adjutant and private secretary.

3. any order: the “order” that Otto von Habsburg communicated to his loyal subject Joseph Roth, and which he was in no position to carry out, was that he should take better care of his health.

455. To Blanche Gidon

Paris

rue de Tournon 18

[postmarked: 15 November 1938]

Tuesday

Dear friend,

my eyes are in grave danger. May I count on you to find a moment to advise me in the course of the afternoon. I am very fearful. Please.

Your old

Joseph Roth

456. Stefan Zweig to Joseph Roth

49 Hallam Street

London W 1

[end of 1938]

Dear Josef Roth,

I have now written to you three or four times, always without reply, and think our old friendship gives me the right to ask you what you mean by this obstinate and hopefully not ill-intentioned silence. It is probable that I will pass through Paris on my way out or back, in January or March, and I would simply like to know which you prefer: that I try to visit you, or that I avoid you (as you so sedulously avoid me). I write without the least trace of chilliness, but purely and simply for information; your silence is too striking, too protracted and oppressive for me to be able to explain it away, say, by business on your part.

All best wishes and that the year ahead (in spite of everything) may be no worse than the one just gone.

Your Stefan Zweig

457. The American PEN Club to Joseph Roth1

The P.E.N. Club

(written in English)

American Center

January 21, 1939

Mr. Joseph Roth, c/o Querido Verlag, Keizersgracht 333, Amsterdam, Holland

Dear Mr. Roth:

On behalf of the American P.E.N. Club, I have the honour to invite you to be a special guest at the World Congress of Writers to be held on invitation of the New York World’s Fair on May 8, 9 and 10, 1939.

When the four basic freedoms — the right to speak, to publish, to worship, and to assemble — are being denied and threatened over an increasingly large part of the world, it seems to us particularly urgent that writers from all countries should gather to consider ways and means of defending free expression under difficult circumstances. We believe that this is the psychological time and the New York World’s Fair — which is celebrating 150 years of democracy in America and emphasizing these four freedoms — is the logical place for such a meeting.

The P.E.N. Centers each have been invited to appoint a representative and we have compiled, in addition, a list of distinguished men and women of letters, such as yourself, to be invited as guests of honor.

We very much hope you will attend. Living expenses will be paid and entertainment provided for the three days of the Congress at the Fair and for three or four days more when we expect to entertain P.E.N. representatives and our guests of honor in New-York City and in country residences belonging to members of the American P.E.N. Club, their friends, and important patrons of literature.

We will also arrange a series of optional excursions of various lengths at reduced costs — including a trip to Washington where we expect the President of the United States to receive us — and hope to arrange for reduced steamship rates from Europe to New York. Details of all these arrangements will be sent later.

This Congress will provide an opportunity for the writers of the world to publicly and freely state their belief in the personal freedoms without which the creation of literature is impossible in a setting commanding international attention.

We would like you to be present and hope your plans will allow a visit at this time. May we have your early acceptance?

Sincerely,

Dorothy Thompson

President

1. This invitation, from Dorothy Thompson, who had translated Job and was an admirer of Roth’s work, was found among Roth’s papers at his death. It was marked in Roth’s hand with the words “best thanks for the copy, dearest Friederike [Friderike Zweig?]. Your J.R.” The sixth act of Roth’s life begins here.

Bronsen, David. Joseph Roth: Eine Biographie . Cologne, 1974.

Cziffra, Geza von. Der heilige Trinker: Erinnerungen an Joseph Roth . Frankfurt and Berlin, 1989.

Kesten, Hermann. Meine Freunde, die Poeten . Frankfurt, Berlin, and Vienna, 1980.

Lunzer, Heinz, and Victoria Lunzer-Talos. Joseph Roth: Leben und Werk in Bildern . Cologne, 1994.

Morgenstern, Soma. Joseph Roths Flucht und Ende: Erinnerungen . Lüneburg, 1994.

Nürnberger, Helmut. Joseph Roth . Reinbek, 1981.

Roth, Joseph. Aber das Leben marschiert weiter und nimmt uns mit: Der Briefwechsel zwischen Joseph Roth und dem Verlag De Gemeenschap, 1936–1939 . Edited by Theo Bijvoet and Madeleine Rietra. Cologne, 1991.

——. Briefe, 1911–1939 . Edited by Hermann Kesten. Cologne, 1970.

——. Gesammelte Werke in sechs Bänden. Edited by Klaus Westermann and Fritz Hackert. Cologne, 1989–91.

——. Geschäft ist Geschäft: Der Briefwechsel zwischen Joseph Roth und den Exilverlagen Allert de Lange und Querido, 1933–1939 . Edited by Madeleine Rietra with Rainer-Joachim Siegel. Cologne, 2005.