Joseph Roth Collection 1897-1995

Joseph Roth was one of the most prominent Austrian writers of the first half of the 20th century. Particularly his novels and newspaper essays gained him the respect of contemporary critics. Joseph Roth's papers at the Leo Baeck Institute Archives consist of handwritten and typewritten manuscripts of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays, including mostly complete manuscripts of his works (The Ballad of the Hundred Days), (The Bust of the Emperor), and his 'Trozki' novel (The Silent Prophet). Joseph Roth's journalistic work is also well represented. There are a few personal items and over one hundred photographs of Joseph Roth and his wife Friederike. The Joseph Roth collection also contains correspondence with family and publishers, clippings about Joseph Roth, and reviews of his work. The addenda mostly consist of invitations to conferences and exhibitions, and scholarly articles on Joseph Roth's work and life. ; Video tape of a Dutch TV-movie by Hans Keller, "Joseph Roth's Grosse-Welt Bioskop-Theater", has been removed to the A/V Collection. ; Joseph Roth was born in Brody in Galicia, then part of the Habsburg Monarchy, now Ukraine, on September 26, 1894 in the family of Maria (Miriam) Roth nee Gruebel and Nahum Roth. He worked as a journalist before focusing on writing novels and short stories. Joseph Roth died in the Necker hospital in Paris on May 27, 1939. His wife, Friederike (Friedl), who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1928, lived in an Austrian mental sanatorium, where she was killed in the Nazi euthanasia program in 1940. ; EAD finding aid available online ; The more substantial part of the collection comes from the Joseph Roth estate that his French translator, Blanche Gidon, preserved during the Second World War. After the war, Joseph Roth's cousin, Fred Grubel, picked up a suitcase with Joseph Roth's papers from her and transferred them to the United States. It took several years until the rights and heritage procedures were cleared up. In January 1963, the bulk of the collection arrived ...