The Georg Büchner Prize is the highest literary honor for German
language writers, and the full extent of Büchner's influence--from
Gerhart Hauptmann to Christa Wolf, Max Reinhardt to Robert Wilson, Alban
Berg to Tom Waits--defies cataloging.
When Georg Büchner died in 1837 at the age of twenty-three, he left
behind a small and heterogenous body of work, most of it unpublished:
three plays, a novella, a political pamphlet, a dissertation, medical
lectures, and letters. Matthew Wilson Smith has newly translated
Büchner's introduction to On Cranial Nerves. Each text is accompanied
by explanatory annotations. The editor's introduction examines the
complexities of Büchner's short life and how they informed his writing.
The volume also contains ten illustrations.
"Contexts" includes Büchner's correspondence with the people who knew
him best, impressions of Büchner from a fellow medical student, excerpts
from Büchner's diary, the wanted poster calling for Büchner's arrest for
political conspiracy as well as the real-life inspirations his novella,
Lenz, and his best-known play, Woyzeck.
For ease of reference, "Criticism" is topically arranged by work and
includes assessments by, among others, Laura Ginters, Victor Brombert,
Bertolt Brecht, Henry Schmidt, Andrew Webber, Rainer Maria Rilke, and
George Steiner. Three accounts of important productions of Danton's
Death are reprinted, including John Houseman's remarks on Orson
Welles's staging. Finally, the speeches of four winners of the Georg
Büchner Prize--Paul Celan, Christa Wolf, Heiner Müller, and Durs
Grünbein--are reprinted in their entirety.
A Chronology of Büchner's life and work and a Selected Bibliography are
also included.
