Mahler-Werfel papers Ms. Coll. 575 Finding aid prepared by Violet Lutz. Last updated on June 23, 2020. University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts 2006 Mahler-Werfel papers Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................4 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................5 Scope and Contents..................................................................................................................................... 34 Administrative Information......................................................................................................................... 40 Controlled Access Headings........................................................................................................................41 Other Finding Aids......................................................................................................................................42 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 43 Correspondence to and from Alma Mahler, Franz Werfel, and Adolf Klarmann.................................43 Correspondence between Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel...................................................................45 Writings by Alma Mahler..................................................................................................................... 49 Writings by Franz Werfel......................................................................................................................54 Memorabilia........................................................................................................................................... 65 Photographs............................................................................................................................................76 Adolf Klarmann Files............................................................................................................................ 77 Secondary Sources on Franz Werfel.....................................................................................................82 Audio Recordings.................................................................................................................................. 83 Oversized Materials (except photographs)............................................................................................86 Index to FW diaries...............................................................................................................................90 Index to FW poetry: published poems..................................................................................................90 Index to FW published collections/cycles of poems...........................................................................118 Index to FW unpublished/uncollected poems..................................................................................... 122 Index to FW published dramatic works..............................................................................................126 Index to FW unpublished dramatic works..........................................................................................129 Index to FW novels............................................................................................................................. 129 - Page 2 - Mahler-Werfel papers Index to FW published prose (other than novels)...............................................................................132 Index to FW unpublished prose.......................................................................................................... 141 - Page 3 - Mahler-Werfel papers Summary Information Repository University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Creator Mahler, Alma, 1879-1964 Creator Werfel, Franz, 1890-1945 Title Mahler-Werfel papers Call number Ms. Coll. 575 Date [bulk] 1898-1975 Date [inclusive] 1880-2004 Extent 134 boxes Language German Language note Primarily in German and English, with some French, Italian, and Czech. Abstract The collection comprises the personal papers of Alma Mahler, the personal and professional papers of Franz Werfel, memorabilia related to Gustav Mahler, and the research files of Adolf D. Klarmann concerning Franz Werfel. Materials include correspondence to and from Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, as well as to and from Adolf Klarmann, sometimes on behalf of Alma; writings of Alma, such as diaries and memoirs, as well as her musical compositions; writings of Werfel, such as poems, plays, novels, novellas and stories, and essays; memorabilia relating to Alma, her parents, Gustav Mahler, and Werfel, such as clippings, programs, and personal documents; photographs (many of which are online); and audio files, such as interviews and songs. Also included are Klarmann’s research - Page 4 - Mahler-Werfel papers notes and writings on Werfel, as well as material relating to Klarmann’s work as editor of Werfel’s writings. Cite as: Mahler-Werfel papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Biography/History Alma Mahler's Youth, 1879 to 1902 Alma Maria Schindler was born on 31 August 1879, in Vienna, then the metropolitan center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her father, Emil Jakob Schindler (1842-1892)[1], a native of Vienna, became one of the most significant landscape painters of his era, and her mother, Anna Schindler (née Bergen; 1857-1938), originally of Hamburg, had a brief career as an actress and singer in Vienna, until her marriage to Schindler, in 1879. In 1884, with his career on the upswing, Schindler took up residence in an old castle, Schloss Plankenberg, embedded in an enchanting setting of trees, hills and fields, and it was here that Alma, along with her younger sister, Margarethe (‘Grete’) Schindler (1880-1942), spent much of her childhood; the family also had an apartment in the city, on Mariahilfergasse. Carl Moll (1861-1945), an aspiring young painter, began studying with Schindler in 1881 and became a close friend of the family. Among the many honors which Schindler accrued as a painter was a commission from Crown Prince Rudolf to paint localities within the Empire along the coast of Dalmatia and Greece–a several-months- long trip from the late fall of 1887 until the spring of 1888, on which his family, including Alma and Grete, accompanied him. While staying on the island of Corfu, the family had an upright piano delivered, and Alma, who had early felt drawn to music, began, at the age of nine, her first attempts at composing. [2] The year 1892 brought a tragic caesura in Alma’s childhood, when her father died suddenly, due to complications of an old appendix inflammation, while the family was vacationing on the North Sea island of Sylt. Alma had by her own account enjoyed an especially close relationship with her father, whom she remembered as “the great model of [her] childhood,” and her “guiding star,” who “always took [her] seriously.”[3] He was “deeply musical,” with an excellent tenor voice, and was a gifted conversationalist and storyteller.[4] Alma describes her mother mainly as supplying a practical discipline in household and financial matters, a skill sorely lacking in her father, who “knew nothing but his art.”[5] - Page 5 - Mahler-Werfel papers Soon after Emil Schindler’s death, Anna Schindler gave up Schloss Plankenberg. In 1895 she married Carl Moll, and the family moved into Moll’s house on the Theresianumgasse. Alma felt alienated by the reconfiguration of her family and was resentful of Moll’s attempts to fill a fatherly role in her life. A few years later, Anna and Carl had a daughter together, Maria Moll (1899-1945; later Maria Eberstaller). In 1897 Carl Moll was one of the co-founders of the Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs– the Vienna Secession, a group of artists and architects who had ‘seceded’ from the conservative Künstlerhaus, the established Viennese art association. Moll’s house became a meeting place for Secession members, including Gustav Klimt, Kolomon (‘Kolo’) Moser, Joseph Maria Olbrich, and Josef Hoffmann; as well as literary figures, such as Max Burckhard (at that time director of the Burgtheater) and Hermann Bahr. As she verged on young womanhood, Alma enjoyed lively social interaction with these and other prominent figures in Viennese artistic circles. She credited Burckhard, in particular, with having given her the sense of being intellectually acknowledged and having promoted the depth and breadth of her reading. In the spring and summer of 1899, the 19-year-old Alma experienced her “first great love,” as she later remembered it.[6] Enamored of Alma, Klimt, who was 17 years her senior and had a reputation for a bohemian lifestyle, pursued her while she was traveling with her family in Italy, and when he caught her alone, they kissed–the first time in her life that she had kissed a man. Alma’s mother and stepfather learned of the progress of the flirtation and quickly intervened. Having been romantically awakened by Klimt’s attentions, Alma was also sorely disillusioned by his retreat in the face of parental opposition, and deeply pained for months over what she herself