I mentioned a few days ago that the whole mess left by not-up-to-the-task-literary executor Max Brod regarding quite a few remaining Franz Kafka manuscripts seems to have come to a near-conclusion with the latest court ruling, saying the manuscripts should go to the National Library of Israel.
In Haaretz Michael Handelzalts now finds 'this is an auspicious time to recall the beginnings of this whole literary saga', in Wordplay: Even Kafka's stories come to an end.
He concludes with a nice anecdote with which I wasn't familiar, from publisher Frederic Warburg's book All Authors are Equal, attributed to to Hannah Arendt: Max Brod shares his dilemma -- Kaflka instructed him to burn his manuscripts upon his death, but they're brilliant works of literature that Brod doesn't want to destroy -- with a literary editor, who finally comes up with the perfect solution:
In Haaretz Michael Handelzalts now finds 'this is an auspicious time to recall the beginnings of this whole literary saga', in Wordplay: Even Kafka's stories come to an end.
He concludes with a nice anecdote with which I wasn't familiar, from publisher Frederic Warburg's book All Authors are Equal, attributed to to Hannah Arendt: Max Brod shares his dilemma -- Kaflka instructed him to burn his manuscripts upon his death, but they're brilliant works of literature that Brod doesn't want to destroy -- with a literary editor, who finally comes up with the perfect solution:
"I have it, Max. Publish Franz's work and burn all your own."(Brod was, of course, an (in)famously second rate and prolific writer himself -- though his work isn't without interest (yes, I've read a few of them ...).)