*SOLD*
 
Der Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse
Berlin, 1927
 
First edition, first printing book and jacket(1. bis 15. Auflage on copyright page and jacket cover) of Hesse’s introspective masterpiece. 
 
Publisher’s blue cloth with gilt lettered spine. Light general wear, textblock a touch cocked, otherwise internally clean and Near Fine. Original, unrestored jacket – spine, edges, and flap folds modestly darkened and rubbed. Tiny chips at spine head, foot, and tips. Slight patina of age. Nevertheless, a beautiful example of the rare jacket, Near Fine.
 
‘…a curious mixture of mysticism and existential angst. It's the story of a strange man who appears one day in an unnamed town and rents an attic apartment.  By day he stays alone in his rooms, reading Goethe and Novalis.  By night he wanders the dark alleyways of the Old Town, like “a wolf of the steppes that had lost its way and strayed into the towns and the life of the herd.”
 
Despite a strong element of magic in the story, Steppenwolf is essentially an autobiographical book.  Hesse wrote it during a time of acute personal crisis, when he had entered middle age and was dealing with the failure of his marriage to a younger woman.  Struggling against thoughts of suicide, the bookish Hesse sought to overcome his sense of isolation and estrangement from society by going out at night to the taverns and dance halls…
 
Hesse saw Steppenwolf as an optimistic book.  It's about a man's journey to self-awareness and spiritual liberation.  As he wrote, “…This book, no doubt, tells of grief and needs [but] still it is not a book of a man despairing, but of a man believing.”’(Springer)

[philosophy, literature]