Gedichte. Bücherei Der jüngste Tag. Neue Dichtungen. (Poems. Library "Judgment Day." New Poetry)
Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1913. First edition. Softcover. Octavo. 65 [3]pp. Original stiff gray wraps with brown and blue lettering in decorative frame on cover, blue lettering on spine; housed in custom made red cloth clamshell box with gilt lettering on black leather label of spine. Considered to be one of the major works of expressionist poetry and the only book publication of Trakl's poetry in his lifetime. Single poems by Trakl were published in several periodicals, e.g. "Der Brenner" in Insbruck. First edition with two pages of advertisements for the series at rear. Wilpert/Gühring 1; Raabe, Hannich-Bode 304.3.
Poets published in the Kurt Wolff series were Gottfried Benn, Iwan Goll, Emmy Hennings, Franz Kafka, Oskar Kokoschka, Eugen Roth, Ernst Toller, Franz Werfel, among others. Wolff approached Trakl to send him a collection of his poetry after having read a published Trakl poem in "Der Brenner." Franz Werfel described the series "Der jüngste Tag" in a 1913 prospectus as follows: 'The new poet will begin anew, unconditionally. There is no reminiscing because he, as nobody else, will feel how unsubstantial a retrospective of literature is.'
Text in German. Ex Libris of Alexander (Alec) Stillmark on inside of clamshell box. Stillmark was awarded the Austrian Federal Chancellor's prize for translation three times. One of the translations was Hugo von Hofmannsthal's title "The Incorruptable Servant." Spine lightly sunned. Wraps with light creasing along bottom edges, front foredge corner and middle of back cover foredge. Spine lightly sunned. Clamshell box in fine condition. Very good to fine condition. Item #55387
Price: $1,200.00