Correspondence (Paperback)

Documenting the correspondence between the two most famous Swiss authors of the twentieth century Frisch and Friedrich Durrenmatt—these letters chart how a friendship that was at first both critical and respectful turned, under the pressure of their increasing fame, into a more teasing mode with a hint of irony, then became seriously endangered, until it finally failed. Peter rüedi’s introduction positions The letters within the context of the authors’ lives and work, and larger historical events. Detailed notes and a chronicle complete the volume, along with photographs and facsimiles of the original letters. ‘Max Frisch and Friedrich Durrenmatt, the two most important Swiss writers of the twentieth century, are arguably two seminal figures in the Western European literary canon since world War II. Eir letters give us an opportunity to understand both writers inside as well as outside their work. Wholly different in personality, temperament, and as writers—Frisch, the master of impersonality, metaphoric subtlety, variousness and elegance of form; Durrenmatt bizarre, satirical, almost clownish in his tragic-comic plays—the two groped and struggled over a lifetime to make their relationship work.