Die Pest: Ein Film

HASENCLEVER, Walter

Published by Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1920

About this Item

First edition. Tall quarto. 52pp. Text in German. Unprinted wrappers with integral parchment (?) dust jacket adhered at the turn-ins. Light offsetting at the turn-ins, dust jacket cover titling a bit rubbed and jacket with a couple of short splits, near fine housed in a very good cardboard slipcase with moderate toning, small stains, and a small chip at the foot of the spine. One of 260 copies numbered and Signed by the author. Printed on heavy handmade paper. Hasenclever was a German Expressionist poet and playwright. His play, *Der Sohn* was the first Expressionist drama to be produced in 1916 at the Albert-Theater in Dresden. Expressionist theater made minimum use of set designs and props which also carried over to the early films of the genre that were created on a low budget. Many elements taken from German Expressionism had a large influence on the horror and film noir genres, and can be found today in science fiction films. *Die Pest*, written in 1920, is a science fiction/dystopian film scenario that begins in a utopian world in the year 2000. The peace is disrupted when a deadly plague breaks out on a ship and soon spreads to land. A rush to formulate an antidote is financed by a wealthy banker, but ultimately fails when the lead scientist dies from the infection. As is common in Expressionist theater, the characters in the story have no personal names but generic identities such as: the Dancer, the Banker, the Slender Lady, etc. German reviews of *Die Pest* were unfavorable and led to Hasenclever becoming less experimental and more conventional in his screenwriting. He would go on to write several screenplays for MGM including the 1930 German-language film *Anna Christie,* featuring Greta Garbo. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hasenclever's books were banned and burned. He exiled to France and got married in 1934. But as World War II started he was imprisoned in an internment camp for being a foreign enemy. He was in the prison camp of Camp des Milles when France fell to Germany, and decided to take his own life to avoid falling into the hands of the Nazis. The Walter Hasenclever Prize has been awarded to a German-language writer every two years since 1996. Fairly well represented in German institutions according to KVK, but we locate only two copies in the United States. A nice copy of an important work usually found in worn condition. Seller Inventory # 541440

Bibliographic Details

Title: Die Pest: Ein Film

Publisher: Paul Cassirer, Berlin

Publication Date: 1920

Binding: Softcover

Condition: Near Fine

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition