Peter Huchel Collection of German Literature

Date range: 19th-20th centuries

Medium: Printed

Number of items: 350 items

Part of the personal library of Peter Huchel (1903–1981), the German poet and editor of the East German literary periodical Sinn und Form, this collection came to the Library from his daughter Susanne Huchel in 1989; related archival material followed in 1991.

The significance of the collection lies in the fact that it contains texts with which the author can be seen to have worked; the main literary influences upon Huchel may be revealed through examination of the numerous annotations and marginalia.

There are items of note from the late 19th century representing Private Presses such as Verlag der Bremer Presse and Blätter für die Kunst, as well as Kurt Wolff’s Der jüngste Tag, and there are 35 texts from the famous Insel Bücherei series published by Insel Verlag. Stefan George, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Rilke and Brecht are each well represented.

Further information:

• Recorded in Library Search.
• Stephen Parker, 'The Peter Huchel Collection of German Literature in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester', Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 72, no. 2 (1990), pp. 135-52.
• Stephen Parker, 'Recent Additions to the Peter Huchel Collection in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester', Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 74, no. 2 (1992), pp. 85-125.
• Stephen R. Parker, 'Dora Huchel's Account of her Life with Peter Huchel: an Edition and Commentary', Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 77, no. 2 (1995), pp. 59-84.
• Stephen Parker, Peter Huchel: a literary life in 20th-century Germany (Berne, 1998).

Location:

• The John Rylands Library, Deansgate  [Map]
• Find out how to use the reading rooms in the John Rylands Research Institute and Library