Stories Of Three Decades

One afternoon in January 1935 I was talking with Thomas Mann in his home outside Zurich. The second volume of Joseph was in type but the end of the work was nowhere in sight and it appeared that Dr. Mann would not be represented on my 1936 list. A pity. Suddenly the idea for the present volume came to me. Collected volumes of short stories of distinguished writers are common in Europe, if by collected you will understand complete. Thus the Gesammelte Novellen of Thomas Mann were published in two volumes fourteen years ago by Fischer in Berlin.

My suggestion pleased my friend and some weeks later in Paris I received from him the table of contents and the scheme - though not the title - of the present volume.

The scheme is simple - here is gathered together all his shorter prose fiction up to the present time - work the creation of which has been spread over a whole generation. Many of these stories have not heretofore appeared in English; some have been published in less felicitous versions than the masterly renderings of Mrs. Lowe; others have long been on my list. Mrs. Lowe is responsible now for the entire English text and Dr. Mann has written a valuable and informing preface. - Alfred A. Knopf



Genre: Literary Fiction