Books

First edition, first printing, scarce cloth issue, of this collection of four short stories, the last to be finished by the author, published a few months after his death. There was also an issue in patterned paper boards. The stories are marked by Kafka's illness. His friend Robert Klopstock remembered the author in his last days: "When he finished the correction, which must have been a considerable, not only mental effort, but a kind of shocking spiritual re-encounter for him, the tears rolled down his face for a long time". In addition to the title piece, the collection includes includes "Ersted Lied", "Eine kleine Frau", and "Josefine die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse". Herman Hesse wrote that "Erstes Lied" revealed Kafka as "a secret master and king of the German language". The binding was designed by the German-American artist George Salter, who devised similar bindings for Kafka's other posthumous publications. Octavo. Original green cloth, blue paper labels to spine and front cover printed in dark red, top edge yellow. Bookplate of Gymnastik-Landheim Neuhaus am Schliersee to front pastedown, their ink stamp to title page. Spine sunned, a few small bumps to extremities, faint marks to covers and endpapers, contents clean. A very good copy. Flores, p. 6.

Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist) is a short story by Franz Kafka about the absurdity and alienation of human existence, depicted through the story of a man who fasts for extended periods as a form of performance.