Add MS 88979/5

Correspondence between Ninon Hesse, wife of Hermann Hesse, and Helene (Lena) Neumann, sister of Paul Neumann and Mizzi Unger (née Neumann); 1944-1948, 1962. Ninon writes mainly from her home at Montagnola near Lugano, Switzerland, and Lena writes from London. Two letters from Ninon to Marianne (Anne) Zweig, cousin of Paul, Mizzi and Lena Neumann, are included.

The correspondence relates to family and domestic matters, reflecting the hardships of life in Europe at the end of the Second World War, and the difficulties of making contact with relatives who had been displaced or taken prisoner during the hostilities. The main subject of concern throughout the correspondence is the fate of Mizzi Unger née Neumann and attempts to support her with parcels of clothing and money. Mizzi and her Jewish family were deported by the Russians in 1940 from their home in the city of Lwow / Lemberg / Lviv to Siberia and then to Central Asia. At the time of the correspondence she is discovered to be in Russia, then moves to Poland seeking a visa to travel to the West. An explanatory register of the people named is placed at the end of the folder. Other significant topics are noted in the descriptions of the individual letters which follow.

1. Ninon to Lena; 26 Feb. 1944. Autograph. Publication of Das Glasperlenspiel in Zurich in Nov. 1943.

2. Ninon to Lena; 29 Dec. 1945. Lena has sent greetings to Ninon through Stefan Zweig [not the author] and he has given her Mizzi's address.

3. Lena to Ninon; 18 Jan. 1946. Retained carbon typescript.

4. Ninon to Lena; 16 Feb. 1946. Sends a copy of Hermann Hesse's New Year radio broadcast under separate cover (see Add. MS 88979/4/4).

5. Ninon to Lena; 18 Feb. 1946.

6. Ninon to Lena; 16 May 1946. Hermann is unwell. Sends Brief nach Deutschland under separate cover, with some poems, and explains that it is an answer to the poet Luise Rinser.

7. Ninon to Anne Zweig; 4 June 1946.

8. Ninon to Lena; 5 June 1946. Lena has asked permission to translate Brief nach Deutschland and Hermann Hesse has agreed so long as rights are reserved if the translation is published. They are going to listen to a first performance on the radio of Rilke's Cornet set for alto and chamber orchestra by Frank Martin.

9. Ninon to Lena; 9 June 1946. Going to Locarno to hear Professor [Karl] Kerényi speak about 'Niobe' [cf. his book Niobe. Neue Studien über antike Religion und Hunanität, Zurich, 1949].

10. Ninon to Anne Zweig; 9 June 1946.

11. Ninon to Lena; 17 June 1946.

12. Ninon to Lena; 3 July 1946. Hermann's 69th birthday. He needs a secretary to keep up with correspondence. He is not only a great poet and a wise man but also a great neurasthenic.

13. Ninon to Lena; 12 July 1946.

14. Lena to Ninon; 28 July 1946. Autograph.

15. Lena to Ninon; 25 Aug. 1946. Retained carbon typescript.

16. Ninon to Lena; 28 Aug. 1946. Visiting Schloss Bremgarten near Bern.

17. Ninon to Lena; 19 Sept. 1946. Hermann Hesse going to a sanatorium suffering from nervous exhaustion. She has been reading Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

18. Ninon to Lena; Dec. 1946. Autograph postcard with picture of a violet. Mizzi has sent congratulations to Hermann [on his award of the Nobel Prize].

19. Ninon to Lena; 13 Jan. 1948. Overwhelming correspondence following Nobel Prize award and preparations for Hermann's 70th birthday have occupied her in the interim. Post war unavailability of German publications. They have seen Thomas Mann and his wife, Andre Gide and Hans Carossa have visited, otherwise they see only boring admirers. Max Wassmer has celebrated his 70th birthday. She encloses a poem by Hermann Hesse, presumably the one written for that occasion ― see Add MS 88979/2/8.

20. Ninon to Mizzi Unger [now in Breslau]. 13 Jan. 1948. Typewritten copy forwarded to Lena with annotations.

21. Ninon to Lena; 8 April 1948. Encloses a typescript carbon copy of a poem by Ricarda Huch. beginning 'Tief in den Himmel verklingt . . .' Also one by Hermann Hesse [not identified].

22. Ninon to Lena; Aug. 1962. Printed card acknowledging messages of sympathy on Hermann Hesse's death, with autograph note on reverse describing her feelings and the composition of his last poem.

23. Register of names in the correspondence, with dates and places of birth and death and notes on family relationships, compiled by George Newman; [2005].