Weimar in Princeton: Thomas Mann and the Kahler Circle

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Thomas Mann arrived in Princeton in 1938, in exile from Nazi Germany, and feted in his new country as the greatest living man of letters. This beautiful new book from literary critic Stanley Corngold tells the little known story of Manns early years in America and his encounters with a group of highly gifted migrs in Princeton, which came to be called the Kahler Circle, with Mann at its center. The Circle included immensely creative, mostly German-speaking exiles from Nazism, foremost Mann, Erich Kahler, Hermann Broch, and Albert Einstein, all of whom, during the Circles nascent years in Princeton, were stupendously productive. In clear, engaging prose, Corngold explores the traces the Circle left behind during Manns stay in Princeton, treating literary works and political statements, anecdotes, contemporary history, and the Circles afterlife. Weimar in Princeton portrays a fascinating scene of cultural production, at a critical juncture in the 20th century, and the experiences of an extraordinary group of writers and thinkers who gathered together to mourn a lost culture and to reckon with the new world in which they had arrived.

Reviews

With verve, elegance, and inimitable wit, Corngold provides indispensable insights into the crucial first phase of Thomas Manns American exile by focusing on the electrifying circle of artists, intellectuals, and scientists at Erich Kahlers home in Princeton. Astonishingly rich in ramifications, Weimar in Princeton is an eminently readable and inspiring exploration of this most luminous collective caught within the centurys darkest epoch. * John T. Hamilton, William R. Kenan Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Harvard University, USA *
Stanley Corngolds brilliantly nuanced book is a pendant to his The Mind in Exile and completes his in-depth exploration of this important part of Thomas Manns intellectual journey. This account of Manns everyday intercourse with figures like Einstein, Hermann Broch, and especially Erich Kahler is enlightened and enlivened by Corngolds sly wit and engagingly elicits the civility, intellectual breadth, and sense of community Mann experienced during the Princeton years. Corngold writes for the happy few who relish the life and works of Thomas Mann. Weimar in Princeton will surely enlarge that fortunate circle. * Ruth V. Gross, Professor of German and Head, North Carolina State University, USA *
Zeroing in on a particular place during a brief moment of time, Stanley Corngold uncovers a wealth of cultural, political and personal interactions never before adequately explored. The specific grain of sand in which he discovers this forgotten world is Princeton, New Jersey between 1938 and 1941, where a remarkable group of Central European exiles coalesced around the towering figures of Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Hermann Broch, and Erich Kahler. Corngold fashions a moving and insightful account of their struggles to cope with the loss of their old culture and meet the challenges of the new. Weimar in Princeton is a sprightly, always engaging micro-narrative of a unique moment in twentieth-century trans-Atlantic intellectual history. * Martin Jay, Ehrman Professor of European History Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, USA *

Author Bio

Stanley Corngold is Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at Princeton University, USA, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of nine books, including, most recently, Franz Kafka: The Ghosts in the Machine and Walter Kaufmann: Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic. He has edited 11 books, including the Norton Critical Edition of Kafkas Selected Stories (ed. and trans., with preface, notes and critical apparatus) and the Modern Library edition of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (ed. and trans., with introduction, notes, and critical materials).