Abstract

When Wolfgang Koeppen's holocaust survivor novel Jakob Littners Aufzeichnungen aus einem Erdloch (“Jakob Littner's Notes from a Hole in the Ground”) was published in 1992, it received broad attention. Wolfgang Koeppen was of considerable interest to a reading public who knew his novels Pidgeons on the Grass (Tauben im Gras, 1951), The Hothouse (Das Treibhaus, 1953), and Death in Rome (Der Tod in Rom, 1954). Personally, when I read Jakob Littners Aufzeichnungen I found it so captivating that I decided to explore the possibility of its being published in the United States. The publication rights from Suhrkamp, Koeppen's German publisher, were easy to obtain since German books are underrepresented in the United States and academics often serve as facilitators for German books. Holocaust books are usually well received in the United States, so I had hoped for a successful publication; however, when Suhrkamp refused to give permission for an explanatory foreword about Littner's and Koeppen's lives, the project could go no further.