Readers’ Responses

Since this website was launched three and a half years ago, reader feedback has been modest in scale but generally enthusiastic. The website design allows both for public comments, and for emails to the “editorial office”. Since the latter outnumber the former, I present here slightly edited texts of emails received since 2018.

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I am of course grateful to everyone who has commented on the website. I would encourage use of the public comments function wherever there are no privacy issues.

Now that the entire corpus of Döblin’s epic fictions is available in English, it would be really useful to crowdsource suggestions about other worthy writers in German who are too little known in English. E[xile] this am. again, WOW! for both your job & doblin’s. still gristly, disturbing & haunting but quite a step forward in his art. BE, to me, is THE first PostModern book with doblin inserting himself & even ‘the readers’ into the narrative itself. as the encyclopedia britannica says: ‘a late masterwork of German Surrealism’. not a bad marketing slogan imho, by the way… your job as usual was wonderful & impressive. it must have been a labor of love trying to stay oriented through the long process of translation. your tone fit perfectly. … i am in awe of your job. ever since i discovered doblin … i have been trying to find BE. without you, i likely never would have been able to read it or Wallenstein or Manas for that matter. you have done a great service for lovers of literature & doblin’s legacy. …

PERSONAL ROUTES TO DÖBLIN

From Kyle M. 22 June 2018

… I have long been interested in Alfred Doblin after I read the wikipedia article on Berge Meere und Giganten years ago and found out no one had translated it. I have a pdf file of the Critical Reception of Alfred Doblin’s Major Novels by Wulf Koepke that I downloaded from the internet so I am familiar with some of the critical commentary on Amazonas and Doblin’s other work. I don’t know German, so I’ve been dying to read Doblin in English for years now. … I was actually planning to learn German so I can personally translate some of his works into English myself, but I see that you’ve already accomplished a lot. I am hoping to learn enough German to create a translation of one of his many German biographies and his letters to introduce him to a wider audience. …

From Norman M. 24 December 2018

… My first encounter with Doblin was back in the early nineteen-seventies when I stumbled across the Eugene Jolas translation of Berlin Alexanderplatz in a charming little secondhand bookshop (a translation that I still prefer to the more recent translation by Michael Hofmann, although this may be be based more on sentimental reasons rather than intellectual). Nevertheless, the surprises found inside this novel were complete and unforgettable. I desperately attempted to find more works by this outstanding writer only to discover, to my dismay, that only one other novel had been translated into English. That novel was Men Without Mercy. I finally unearthed a copy of this work, at great expense, and while it may not be a genuinely great novel it is genuinely an interesting one, but then it would seem that Doblin was incapable of writing an uninteresting work. Unfortunately I was forced to wait a number of long years until John E. Woods translated A People Betrayed and Karl and Rosa, which was quickly followed by Tales of a Long Night translated by Robert and Rita Kimber. At this time I was exceedingly optimistic that this was the beginning of the resurrection of Alfred Doblin’s novels. The longed for resurrection, however, never eventuated. it was not until your translation of The Three Leaps of Wang Lung came into existence that Doblin once again seemed to be receiving the recognition he so greatly deserves. Now I discover that you have had difficulty in finding a publisher for your translations of Amazonas, Wallenstein, Mountains Seas and Giants as well as Manas. I would weep, but the fact that you have given readers the opportunity to read these wonderful works by Doblin gives me hope. …

From Scott S. 2 April 2020

… – I was introduced to Alfred Döblin through Berlin Alexanderplatz. I found a copy of the Fromm edition of A People Betrayed in a used bookstore. When I started reading it, I recognized quickly that there was something wrong. It seemed to begin in medias res but more abruptly than that technique usually implies. It took a bit of research to discover that I was starting volume 2 and that volume 1 hadn’t been translated.

SUGGESTIONS FOR (MY) FURTHER WORK

From Kyle M. 22 June 2018

… Once you finish Wallenstein, do you also have any intention of translating Wadzeks Kampf mit der Dampfturbine, Babylonische Wanderung or his first two novels Jagende Rosse and Der Schwarze Vorhang?

From Kyle M. 11 July 2021

November 1918 being completed, I hope you are able to eventually secure the rights to the John Woods translation from Fromm International and piece it together with the rest of your translation …

From Norman M. 24 December 2018

… I will end my praise of Mr. Godwin and Alfred Doblin on a selfish note. Having been truly absorbed by Doblin’s Wallenstein when will book four, five and six be completed, and are you thinking of translating Wadzek’s Battle with the Steam Turbine as well as The Black Curtain?

NETWORKING ON DÖBLIN MATTERS

From Anne Thompson 18 May 2020 and 9 September 2020

A translation Into English of Wadzeks Kampf is due to be Published later this year. … I have just finished Wadzeks Kampf gegen die Dampfturbine and plucking up the courage to approach publishers.

I also put heart and soul and whatever expertise I may have into this and feel very vulnerable. After reading of your experiences I feel braver.

Anne Thompson

From Mark S. 9 November 2020

hello! I’m happy to have discovered your site on Döblin. I’m writing to see if you can advise me on a family research question: my great-grandfather, Arthur Rosin, who emigrated from Berlin to New York, was friends with Döblin, as was his wife, Elvira Rosin. I have a photo of the writer with my great-grandfather, and would be curious to try to determine the date and location of the photo. I’m aware of a few published letters between them, but I am curious to know if there is a Döblin biographer or researcher who might have information about the writer’s relationship with the Rosins and who might be able to correspond in English. thanks for any advice. best regards,

My reply on 9 November 2020:

Hi Mark! Thanks for your very interesting query, which has nicely occupied my after-lunch doldrums hour today. It would probably help if you could scan me a copy of the photo. I’ve enough materials on hand that show Doblin’s changing features over the decades. He kept in close contact with the Rosins from the early 1920s until his flight into Swiss exile in 1933. So the photo could date from sometime in that period. There’s a June 1929 photo of Döblin alone gazing at a pond in a garden, “probably” the Rosins’. During his two week trip to New York for a PEN Congress in May 1939 Döblin met frequently with the Rosins. When he arrived as a refugee in October the following year he must also have met with them in New York. It’s not clear if they met again in 1945, when Döblin was on his way back to Europe. A sight of your photo (if it will scan legibly) could help pin down the right decade at least! I don’t know of any Anglophone Döblin scholars with a close interest in his biography as distinct from his works.

I hope this helps! Best regards, Chris

Mark S. 10 November 2020

Dear Chris, Many thanks for your speedy response. I’m attaching the photo I mentioned. If you can point me to any further information regarding the relationship with Döblin and the Rosins, I’d be very grateful. I’m particularly curious whether it was Arthur’s role in the Berlin Secession, or Elvira’s family connections in the antiquarian book world – or some other connection that brought them together.

Arthur and Elivira lived long enough for me to have strong memories of visiting their apartment. I regret that I don’t have more documentation of their lives and careers, so am following up and whatever lead I can.

Thanks again, and best wishes, Mark

From Jeff W. 26 September 2021

hey chris, look what came out the same day your BE[xile] did. you are perfectly positioned to hopefully get wallenstein & BE published with the increased interest, some of which is from your previous work going all the way back to WL. … Alfred Döblin: Monsters, Cyborgs and Berliners 1900-1933 by Robert Craig. Hardcover £74.99 . i can’t wait to see what he says about doblin. thanks yet again! Also 2 women and a poisoning   has just appeared. you may want to check out rivka galchen’s ‘everyone knows your mother is a witch’. modern but overlaps with ‘wallenstein’.

Now starting 2 women & a poisoning which looks great –  jeff