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    Address Unknown
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    Address Unknown
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    Address Unknown
    Ebook49 pages33 minutes

    Address Unknown

    By Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A rediscovered classic, originally published in 1938 --

    and now an international bestseller.

    Address

    Unknown

    When it first appeared in Story magazine in 1938, Address Unknown became an immediate social phenomenon and literary sensation. Published in book form a year later and banned in Nazi Germany, it garnered high praise in the United States and much of Europe.

    A series of fictional letters between a Jewish art dealer living in San
    Francisco and his former business partner, who has returned to Germany, Address Unknown is a haunting tale of enormous and enduring impact.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWashington Square Press
    Release dateApr 19, 2011
    ISBN9781451655896
    Unavailable
    Address Unknown
    Author

    Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

    Kathrinek Ressmannt Taylor was an American author best remembered for Address Unknown, originally published in Story magazine in 1938. She was also the author of Day of No Return, and a professor of creative writing and journalism at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania for nineteen years. Kressmann Taylor died in Minnesota in 1996.

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    Reviews for Address Unknown

    4/5

    316 ratings23 reviews

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    • 3/5
      short read, two friends sending letters back and forth between US and Germany just before WWII. Something kind of great how it articulates the descent from friendship to antisemitic hate.
    • 4/5
      Address Unknown was originally published in Story magazine in 1938 and immediately became a literary sensation, being reprinted in book form the next year in both the US and Europe.The plot unfolds in epistolary form as a a series of letters between partners in an art gallery in San Francisco. Martin Schulse has returned to Germany with his family, while his Jewish partner Max Eisenstein remains in California to run the business. The letters begin as missives between two dear friends, but begin to take a turn as Martin is drawn into local political office and seduced by the message of the rising power of the Nazi party.When Max receives a return letter from his actress sister marked "Addressat unbekannt," he pleads for Martin's assistance in her (she had been at one time Martin's lover). But Martin, now part of the Nazi apparatus refuses and tells Max to cease all contact. However, Max continues to write cryptic business letters to his former partner and friend.Today, of course, the story seems predictable, but at its publication the story called attention to what was unfolding in Germany in the 1930s.Last night I saw a production of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar, which chronicles the destruction of the career of a secular Muslim because he spoke up in court for an imam accused of terrorism. The message of the play was not so different from the message of Taylor's story.
    • 5/5
      Powerful. Heart-wrenching. Left me in a cold-sweat


      The horrors of Nazi Germany.
    • 5/5
      I came across this by chance trying to find some radio drama on the net. It was a BBC production from a couple of years ago.I ordered the book straight away and have just finished it.
      A very powerful and thought provoking read. What I don't understand is how it was forgotten for so long.

    • 5/5
      Originally published in 1939, this slim book carries the weight and impact of a novel five times its size. A fictional correspondence between an American Jew and a German follower of Hitler with a gasp-worthy ending.
    • 3/5
      This is a series of very short letters between a Jewish art dealer and his one-time best friend who has emigrated to Germany. It shows the decline of their friendshihp until it is consumed by Nazism. This is a work of fiction that was written in 1932 and recently rediscovered. Now that we know more than they did in 1932, it is a bit anti-climatic; but it shows the heartache of a lost friendship.
    • 5/5
      Does the surgeon spare the cancer because he must cut to remove it? We are cruel. Of course we are cruel. Martin Schulse and Jewish Max Eisenstein are partners in a successful San Francisco art gallery, and this book is made up of the letters they exchange when Martin, who has never felt settled in the USA, decides to return to Germany with his family in 1932.To start with the letters are friendly, as Max updates Martin on how the business is doing, and Martin tells him about their new house and how his children are settling in, but the tone gradually changes over the next eighteen months as Martin becomes seduced by Nazism to Max's dismay.Although the pen is mightier than the sword, as the saying goes, in this book the pen becomes a sword when it is used to get revenge for a terrible betrayal.The author of this book was inspired by hearing about American students studying in Germany writing to their classmates back home begging them not to include jokes taunting Hitler in their letters as they could get someone killed. First published in 1938, this short book became a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic and is still well worth reading now.
    • 4/5
      Address unknown is an epistolary novel. This means that the novel appears to be a correspondance in letters, but unlike, for instance Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road, which is an epistolary work based on real letters, Address unknown is a work consisting of fictional letters which together aim to tell a story.This short novel was written by the American author, Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, and first published in 1938. Kressmann Taylor got her idea from real correspondence. By the mid-1930s she heard of American students in Germany writing letters home describing Nazi atrocities. Their friends sent them letters making fun of Hitler. Then, the visiting students urged them to stop doing that saying these letters put them in grave danger, and they might get arrested or even killed. Thus Kressmann Taylor got the idea of letters as a weapon or "murder by mail."Most middle- and upper-class Germans had Jewish friends or clients before Hitler rose to power, but particularly after 1933 the political climate in Nazi Germany rapidly changed towards a situation where having Jewish friends was suspicious. In fact, while researching materials for her novel, Kressmann Taylor discovered that even well-educated Germans had fallen prey to the indoctrination to renounce friendship with Jewish people and despise them. The idea that German censors opened incoming and outgoing mail. monitored correspondence, and arrested people accused of having personal or business contacts with Jewish people flabbergasted Kressmann Taylor.Address unknown is based on this idea. The book consists of a correspondence between Max Eisenstein and Martin Schulse. Together, they run a successful art gallery in San Francisco. Martin Schulse returns to Germany, where he quickly adopts the new political ideas of the Nazis. Max Eisenstein, his Jewish business partner, remains in the US to continue the business. As the story evolves, Max is slow to understand how the situation unfolds, and Jewish people realize too late how vicious the nazis are in their determination to exterminate the Jews. Martin takes a very active, volutary role in this process, and deliberately betrays Max when he asks him to help his sister Griselle, who is an actress in Berlin.When the bitter truth dawns on Max, he takes a turn, and continues to write letters to Martin, until one day his letter is returned, marked "Address Unknown".The short novella Address unknown is perfectly tuned to the slow-witted process of discovering how things stood in Germany at the time. Tipped off by the curious correspondence incident, Kressmann Taylor investigated what was known about Nazi Germany and discovered what tragedy was unfolding, long before anyone in the United States had a clear idea of what was going on. The novel was an immediate success, and was re-issued to serve as a warning. Most continental editions were lost as soon as the war broke out, and interest in this curious short novel only recently picked up as a French translation appeared in 1999, a German translation in 200, Hebrew in 2001 and a new English edition in 2002, with more countries and languages following.Nowadays, censorship and fear of what carelessness are widespread. Americans are hesitant to send mail to Iran or North Korea, and in a more modern version, Internet and email censorship is ubiqitous. Apparently, the time is right for a re-reading of this novel.
    • 5/5
      I'd never heard of this little novella before. Published in 1938, it's an example of why I dislike the idea that you have to consider the politics of the time before judging what an author writes. In 1938 we in the USA were doing our best, successfully, to ignore the horror Hitler was inflicting on his own people, but Kathrine Kressmann Taylor wasn't. We always hope authors have open eyes and can see maybe parts of the world that our blinkered eyes ignore. Taylor saw it all and told the world about it in, I have to say, a very entertaining way.
    • 5/5
       This was a short, sharp, and powerfully brief story. It’s fascinating to think about a world where people don’t associate Nazis with evil quite yet. The 1930s were time of denial when it came to Germany and this book captured that perfectly. This epistolary novel gave us a glimpse into the life of an American Jewish man and his German friend and business partner. Their correspondence was brief, but world-shattering. I know I’ll be thinking about this one for awhile.
    • 4/5
      This is a very short book of letters between two men, one a Jewish American living in the United States, the other a German who returns to Germany to raise his growing family just as Hitler is rising to power. The two men shared a friendship and were business partners, so it’s safe to assume that they had quite a bit in common.As Hitler rises to power, the tone of their letters begins to change as the German gets taken in by Hitler’s rhetoric. It is chilling to note the comparisons of the past to our present, and also how otherwise intelligent people can be taken in by a lunatic.Even though the book was originally published in 1938, it still resonates today by illustrating how easily people can be manipulated and how desperate they can become when trying situations arise. Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.
    • 5/5
      Wow. How do I react to this? Cheer? Cry? Feel horrified? Drop my jaw in disbelief and shock? Honestly I am feeling all the feels. What a massive thought bomb this very short book is! While this story is set as WWII is gaining ground, I think it so relevant to today and everyday really. It will make you reflect deeply on your own values and morals. Friendship. Family. Patriotism. Humanity. What would you stand up for? Who would you stand up for? How far would you go to support your friends and family? The more I think about the implications of these character's actions and situations, the more I am thinking this feels like a horror novel - and even more horrifying, it's actually our historical reality. It's definitely 90 pages that will leave you reeling. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book.
    • 4/5
      Un romanzo epistolare breve estremamente potente. Due amici, Max e Martin, comunicano via lettera tra America e Germania dove vivono rispettivamente; Max, ebreo, è un commerciante d'arte Californiano, mentre Martin è tornato in patria a lavorare per riavvicinarsi alla famiglia; gli eventi politici (siamo negli anni '30) saranno in grado di mutare una amicizia solida oltre alle sorti del Mondo intero.---A short but extremely powerful epistolary novel. Two friends, Max and Martin, exchange letters between America and Germany where they respectively live; Max, a Jew, is a Californian art trader while Martin has come back to his homeland to be close to his family; the political events (the story is set during the '30) will be able to change a friendship as well as the destiny of the World.
    • 5/5
      I'm not sure what to classify this book as. The book information calls it fiction but according to the Foreword says: "The author said that Address Unknown came from real life and was based on a few actual letters." So it contains a grain of truth.

      No matter how you classify it, Address Unknown is a reminder of how powerful words can be.
    • 3/5
      This is a series of very short letters between a Jewish art dealer and his one-time best friend who has emigrated to Germany. It shows the decline of their friendshihp until it is consumed by Nazism. This is a work of fiction that was written in 1932 and recently rediscovered. Now that we know more than they did in 1932, it is a bit anti-climatic; but it shows the heartache of a lost friendship.
    • 5/5
      Originally published in Story Magazine in 1938, this is the fictional account, through letters of an America Jew called Max and his German friend Martin. We join the story as Martin and his family relocate from America back to their homeland of Germany. They have been business partners and friends and once the relocation happens Martin and Max continue their business dealings and friendship with Max sending Martin chatty letters which contain brief financial details.The year is 1932. Germany is not in a good shape, there is poverty. We are at the eve of the rise of Hitler in Germany and he is bring hope to the people....Over the coming pages we see the once sturdy relationship and friendship of Max and Martin come under strain. Martin is greatly influenced by the political developments in Germany and how those of Jewish descent are being treated. Max continues writing, despite Martin asking that he does not and at once we see the formation of censorship and those who receive certain letters being held to account. We see the division of a nation driven by the policy of Germany at that time. The book concludes in March 1934.Although a slim volume, just 95 pages this book has left a lasting impression. This is certainly a classic of the 20th Century and this is most definitely a case of less is more.
    • 4/5
      A brief but worthwhile read - a warning tale of Germany and Hitler written before the official start of World War II. Originally a short story.
    • 4/5
      Published in 1938 for an American magazine, it is remarkable just how insightful and ominously prophetic this small book is. World War II hadn't even started yet when Taylor published it, but already it reflects the rise of the Third Reich and the growing hostility toward Jews in Nazi Germany. Before reading this, it had been my impression that the Holocaust was mostly kept a secret during the war years, or at least heavily watered down, largely due to German propaganda showing videos and photos of happy, healthy Jewish families in clean, functional housing estates. But if an American writer knew about the first tremors of the Holocaust before it even began, maybe I've been misled? I'll have to do some research."Address Unknown" is written entirely in the form of fictional letters sent back and forth between two old friends. The first is Martin Shulse, a man rising in the Fuhrer's ranks in Germany. The second is Max Einstein, a German Jew living in America. At first the exchanges they share are warm and friendly, exactly what you would expect from two friends. But as the Nazi feeling in Germany grows, Martin comes to share his country's prejudices and becomes increasingly hostile toward Max, and the correspondence eventually ends with both men's lives being destroyed.This book was very interesting, and I thought that the sobering ending was a good one. It was left slightly open for you to wonder about. This book seemed very realistic to me, as if it could have been actual letters someone found. Surely, this was a situation experienced by many during the years leading up, and during, World War II. I knew it was coming, but I still felt surprised and betrayed when Martin tells Max that Jews are "a sore spot to any nation." An interesting, very quick read.
    • 2/5
      First published in Story magazine in 1938, it is melodramatic in tone and language, but partly that is due to the author's (I think) deliberate effect of writing English as though by native German speakers. The grammar and word order follow German syntax, the way non-native speakers often do.Impressive primarily as a reminder that it was public knowledge even in 1938 that the Nazis were systematically murdering political prisoners and conducting pogroms, known even to writers in the U.S. That the story was apparently reprinted as a book edition, adapted in Readers Digest, and other periodicals, indicates it was not a news item limited to the Jewish community.
    • 5/5
      One of the most moving and very thought provoking books I have read. I wouldn't ever want to condone what happened to the Jews during WW2, but at the same time the book gave me a glimpse of how it was let to happen.Tragic!
    • 5/5
      Constructed as a series of letters between two business partners and friends, one based in Germany and one in the US, and set in the 1930s, this is a short, but perfectly formed book. Its both chilling in its evocation of the atmosphere of the early 1930s and sad.
    • 4/5
      fascinating and well written.
    • 4/5
      Difficult to review without referring to the plot, therefore this is quite short. The story is only 64 pages but it feels rich with detail. Originally published in 1938 this story caused quite a stir! It is written as a series of letters between a Jewish American living in San Francisco and his former business partner who had returned to Germany. It's sad, tragic and evocative. I'd like everyone I know to read this memorable story.