Martin Buber (1878-1965)
Two autograph letters and one postcard signed, 1922-1928
Comprising two autograph letters signed (‘Buber’) to Dr [Theodor Wilhelm] Danzel and one autograph postcard signed to ‘The editors of the 1^st supplement to the Berliner Tageblatt’, Heppenheim, 3 December 1922 - 4 December 1928.

In German. Three pages, various sizes, 155 x 103mm to 209 x 165mm, with envelope postmarked 4 December 1922. Provenance: Sotheby’s, 15 May 1996, lot 155.

Buber exchanges ideas with the ethnologist Theodor Wilhelm Danzel and writes to the editors of the Berliner Tageblatt. In the first letter (3 December 1922), Buber discusses a possible reading of a book by Danzel, expressing his interest in doing this. However, he declines to discuss his thoughts on the ‘mythical element’, since it would require him to paraphrase. He then discusses his other work, including Ich und Du (I and Thou, 1923). In the letter of 19 May 1923, Buber apologies for not replying to Danzel’s letter from December, presumably a response to Buber’s own last letter, above. He reports on his progress with Ich und Du, writing that he would be happy to exchange it for his recipient’s Mexiko I. He stresses that his is a work of ‘Religionsphilosophie’ rather than of history. In the letter of 4 December 1928, he says he is ready to contribute an article titled ‘An die Jugend’, stating that he cannot focus only on the problems of the Jewish youth and prefers to write on the theme of ‘Jugend und Verantwortung’.