You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Vienna XIX, Strassergasse 47
May 31, 1936
Dear Arnold Zweig
“The affection of this world is indeed mixed with cruelty.” 1 Every half hour of the past two weeks has been taken up with completing printed cards of thanks like the enclosed: a few words or sentences under the signature, most of them stilted and forced, and only today, the first of “the pleasant feast of Whitsuntide,” 2 am I finding the time to write you a letter, aroused by the threat that you wish to become my biographer. You who have so many more attractive and important things to do, who can appoint kings and survey the brutal folly of mankind from the height of a watchtower! No, I am far too fond of you to allow such a thing to happen. Anyone turning biographer commits himself to lies, to concealment, to hypocrisy, to flattery, and even to hiding his own lack of understanding, for biographical truth is not to be had, and even if it were it couldn't be used.
Truth is unobtainable; humanity does not deserve it, and incidentally, wasn't our Prince Hamlet right when he asked whether anyone would escape a whipping if he got what he deserved?
Thomas Mann's visit, the address he presented to me, and the public lecture he delivered for the celebration, were gratifying and impressive events. Even the Viennese colleagues celebrated me and betrayed by all manner of signs how difficult they found it. The Minister of Education sent a formal message of polite congratulation, whereupon the newspapers were forbidden on pain of confiscation to publish this act of sympathy within the country. In addition foreign and domestic newspapers printed numerous articles