Hermann Hesse. First American edition (stated). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974. Both unclipped dust jacket and hardcover are in Very Good+ condition. Dust jacket design by Milton Glaser. There is a small stain on inside and bottom of jacket as well as a small half inch tear on spine. No writing or markings in this well preserved edition, 185 pp. Translated by Ralph Manheim. The book is written in English and was originally published in German.
"The earliest essay in this book was written in September 1914 and was followed by a stream of letters, essays, and pamphlets that reached its high point with Zarathustra's Return (published anonymously in 1919, the year that also saw the publication of Demian) , in which Hesse exhorted German youth to shake off the false gods of nationalism and militarism that had led their country into the abyss".
Selections from books and letters edited by Volker Michels. The publisher's blurb reads: ''The aging Hermann Hesse arranged to have privately printed a collection of thirty-nine brief passages culled from his writings, with which to reply to some of the innumerable letters he received. The existence of this book provided encouragement for the present expanded volume, which a first published in Germany in 1971.''
