Colophon

The Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann is best known for her poetry, and perhaps rightfully so – this winner of the Gruppe 47 prize was a trusted friend (and lover) of the poet Paul Celan, and is one of the key German-language poets of the post-World War II era. But it is precisely that era and all it implies that has critical tongues wagging over the recent publication of Die Radiofamilie (edited by Joseph McVeigh, professor of German at Smith College), a collection of Bachmann’s writing, including scripts of radio plays that aired shortly after the conclusion of World War II on American sponsored radio stations in Austria and Germany.

All right so far. But what is causing controversy is that the plays were broadcast as part of the American propaganda campaign to keep post-war Germany and Austria from falling under the influence of the soviets, who of course had taken control of Czechoslovakia and the lands to the east. The heretofore uncollected texts are causing quite a stir among German-language readers, but unfortunately they have yet to be translated into English. It could be a job for Peter Filkins, translator of an exquisite collection of Bachmann’s poetry in English, Darkness Spoken.

Prague readers might be interested to know that Bachmann visited Prague twice for several weeks at a time in the winter of 1964, and wrote a number of poems about the city, two of which are contained in From a Terrace in Prague.