NORDAU - ZIONISM] Max NORDAU (1849-1923) - Lot 364

NORDAU - ZIONISM] Max NORDAU (1849-1923) Important correspondence to his wife, more than 80 autograph letters, mostly signed and mostly written on 4 pp. In-12. Some on Executive of the Zionist Organisation letterhead. Dated from January 5, 1919 to July 23, 1920 and mostly located at 77 Great Russell street, London. This correspondence, which alternates between the prosaic day-to-day account and the life story of a writer and man of the theater, is striking for its spontaneity and the quality of its writing. Important information on Zionism is mentioned. In these letters, Max Nordau talks about his daily life as well as his work as a writer and journalist. He also talks about his Zionist activities and meetings. Letter, Dec. 16, 1919: "...Then came Mr. Sprinzak, who spoke to me again at length about the aspirations of the Jewish workers in Palestine, then Mr. Simon from Mannheim, the most intimate friend, it seems, of Mr. Weitzmann, an arch-millionaire... and, I am told, the most bitter of my enemies in the organization, always demanding that I be ostracized from it. ...my only enemy, the only one, would be M. Clémenceau, before whom they all tremble. Strange. The secretary adds that he believes Mr. Clémenceau's hostility stems from the fact that Léon D. has been his damned soul for many months...". Letter dated December 19, 1919: "Pil. (Pilichovski) has many talents. And above all, Apollo and the Muses have given him an invaluable privilege for an artist who wants and has to sell: he knows how to embellish his model, he knows how to flatter without crudely lying...". Thursday, February 19, 1920: "...the swindlers of the arts, the tricksters of taste and beauty, are at this time all cubists, futurists or at least expressionists. In reality, they are nothing more than industrial knights of art". Letter dated February 24, 1920: Famine matrimoniale is a synthesis of all the various phenomena by which the current return of humanity to bestiality and of reason to animal instinct is manifested: the smallness of the number of brides, shamelessly indecent feminine fashions, the fury of lascivious dances... the fashion of Bergsonism, which is the pretentious and galimatiasic exposition of all these tendencies. Voilà". Monday January 5, 1920: "...I watch with amusement the state of anxiety approaching terror of the great potentates of the box. They see, with increasing frustration by the hour, that their hitherto employed methods can no longer be used, and are ingenious in finding others. They have several spies permanently stationed outside my door, watching for people who come to my house, so as to denounce them immediately and make it possible for them to be seized immediately and put under surveillance. Since all the arrivals began to visit me, since I spoke to the Americans for 7 quarters of an hour, they no longer dare to speak with hypocritically concerned and self-pitying faces about my "illness", nor to assert that I am an exhausted old man, quite softened, in short: gaga, nor to spread that I have lost interest in Zionism...". Thursday, June 10, 1920: "There's a general vileness in Paris, but the Jews are particularly conspicuous. They feel so threatened, the unfortunates, they are so acutely aware of the furious anti-Semitism that surrounds them, that they tremble pitifully before their own shadow". Tuesday July 6: "So I conclude from what you write me the next day that there is every possibility of making dear Mathilde happy. I am as happy as she is. As he's a Jew, I have no fears. Ours are accustomed to taking affairs of the heart very seriously, and women are far too sacred to them to play with and to toy with. If you have a moment, I urge you to read chapter 5 of Proverbs... And as you read these 23 incomparable verses, remember that this was written - and thought! and felt! - 6 to 8 centuries before Christ". Wednesday, July 7, 1920: "It's just that there are now nearly 300 delegates from the Jewish people here, and the scoundrels who have arrogated to themselves a kind of low and ignoble dictatorship according to the best Russian traditions, feel very well that the good days of their autocracy are over, at least for the duration of the so-called annual conference". Thursday, July 8, 1920: "...I spent yesterday at Memorial Hall, the conference room that plays at the Congress, all the time from 9:½ a.m. to 1:½ a.m., and from 2:½ a.m. to 6:½ a.m.. So you can get an idea of what my life has been like. And so it will be for three weeks. What can I do to fulfill my literary duties...". Letter of July 14, 192