Letters of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1900-1949

the long version

Few figures in twentieth-century literary life enjoyed such a stormy sibling relationship as the brothers Thomas and Heinrich Mann. This book, the first complete English-language translation of their correspondence, provides an introduction to the intimate details of their personal and professional lives. From their differing views on the First World War and the question of Germany's future after the Second to the intense rivalry that accompanied their experiences of literary success, Thomas and Heinrich Mann were brothers whose relationship was marked by intense conflict and complex ties of loyalties. Moving from Germany at the turn of the century to their American exile in Princeton and Los Angeles in the 1930s, their letters portray their struggle as novelists and socially engaged intellectuals to apprehend the momentous historical changes in Germany and their experience of American exile.