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Of Thomas Mann's public lectures at Princeton University, On Myself is of particular interest. Since the publication of the German text in 1966, it has been increasingly referred to as the definitive authorial comment on Mann's works, themes, and sources. The English version in which it was given in May 1940 appears here for the first time, in its two parts entitled From Childhood Play to Death in Venice and On my own Work, together with the two lectures Richard Wagner and The Ring of the Nibelung and Goethe's Werther, which Thomas Mann delivered in English at Princeton in 1939. The lectures are put in context by the editor's informative introduction and annotations, which also detail Mann's handwritten alterations to the typescripts on which the edition is based.
List of contents
Contents: On Myself: 1. From Childhood Play to Death in Venice; 2. On my own Work - Richard Wagner and The Ring of the Nibelung - Goethe's Werther - Appendix: On Myself (unedited version) - Bibliography - Index of authors and works.
About the author
The Author: James N. Bade, the editor, studied at Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Zürich, where he graduated Dr. phil. in 1974. Senior Lecturer in German and Assistant Dean of Arts at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, he has published numerous articles on Thomas Mann and is the author of Die Wagner-Mythen im Frühwerk Thomas Manns (Bonn, 1975) and «Die Betrogene» aus neuer Sicht (Frankfurt a.M., 1994, 2nd ed. 1995).
