The Max Kade Center acquired the Spalek exile collection in 1997. It includes works by and about such famous writers as Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann, Franz Werfel, and Carl Zuckmeyer. The collection goes far beyond, to span an entire generation of writers, not just those who fled to the United States, but
also those who escaped to England, France, and Latin American countries. Nor is the library restricted to literature; it contains books of illustrious emigrants who made an impact during the Nazi years outside Germany: exiles such as Theodor W. Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Ernst Bloch, Ernst Cassirer, Albert Einstein, Erik H. Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm, Georg Grosz, Hajo Holborn, Arthur Koestler, Siegfried Kracauer, Paul Otto Kristeller, Herbert Marcuse, Erwin J. Panofsky, Hans Reichenbach, Max Reinhardt, and Paul Tillich. The collection is genuinely interna-
tional and interdisciplinary. The wide breadth of the collection suggests fruitful directions for teaching and research. Our symposium will encompass a broad range of personalities, traditions, and disciplines, reflecting the paradoxical result of conflict and persecution. Despite the tragic injuries and displacement, the exile experience brings to America profound changes and lasting benefits. The United States has always been a country of immigrants, but the years 1848 1849 and 1933-1945 have special significance. The turn of events in Europe forced the most outspoken voices of freedom and intellect to flee. Europe’s loss became America’s gain.

        John Spalek was born in Warsaw. Having written a dissertation at Stanford University on “Theological Problems on the Contemporary German Stage” and having recognized the importance of Ernst Toller’s career and works, he has devoted his research career to the exploration and preservation of the exile legacy. While teaching at the
University of Southern California in Los Angeles he was at the center of a community that was the haven for many prominent exiles from Nazi Germany. There and later, at the State University of New York in Albany, he assembled and published a most comprehensive set of reference works on exile literature. Spalek’s seven volumes devoted to
exile writers in California and New York, along with his guide to archival materials, have become indispensable tools in German studies. Because of his expertise, the central library of the German Federal Republic (Die Deutsche Bibliothek
in Frankfurt) has consulted him for many years about the writings of exiles and the acquisitions of their manuscripts, correspondence, and papers. Professor Spalek’s wide and thorough knowledge of the field is reflected in his library.

 

John M. Spalek: Book Publications

1. Ernst Toller and His Critics. A Bibliography. Charlottesville, Va.: Bibliographical
Society of the Univ. of Virginia, 1968. xxii, 919 pp. Second
printing, New York: Haskell House, 1973.

2. Medieval Epic to the Epic Theater of Brecht. Essays in Comparative
Literature, ed. with R. P. Armato. Los Angeles: Univ. of Southern California
Press, 1968. vii, 252 pp. (Univ. of Southern California Studies in Comparative
Literature, No. 1)

3. Deutsche Exilliteratur seit 1933. Vol. I: Kalifornien, ed. with Joseph P.
Strelka. Bern: Francke, 1976. In two parts: 868, 216 pp. (Studien zur deutschen
Exilliteratur)

4. German Expressionism in the Fine Arts. A Bibliography. Ed. John M.
Spalek et al. Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, 1977. 272 pp. (Art and
Architecture Bibliographies, 3) Ca. 5,000 items, with commentary.

5. Ernst Toller: Gesammelte Werke, 5 vols., ed. with Wolfgang Frühwald.
Munich: Hanser, 1978. 1437 pp. (Reihe Hanser, 250-254)

6. A Guide to the Archival Materials of the German-Speaking Emigration
to the United States after 1933, with Adrienne Ash and Sandra H. Hawrylchak.
Charlottesville: The Univ. Press of Virginia for the Bibliographical Society
of the University of Virginia, 1978. xxv, 1133 pp. Reprinted Munich: K. G.
Saur Verlag, 1997.

7. Der Fall Toller, ed. with Wolfgang Frühwald. Munich: Hanser, 1979. 26
pp. (Companion volume to the Toller edition, containing documents, materials
and commentary)

8. Karl O. Paetel, Reise ohne Uhrzeit. Autobiographie, ed. with Wolfgang
D. Wife. Worms: The World of Books and Georg Heintz, 1982. 300 pp.

9. Exile: The Writer’s Experience, ed. with Robert F. Bell. Chapel Hill,
N.C.: Univ. of North Carolina Press. 1982. xx, 370 pp. (Studies in the Germanic
Langs. and Lits., 99)

10. Deutschsprachige Exilliteratur seit 1933. Band II: New York. Ed. with
Joseph P. Strelka. Bern: Francke, 1989. xxix, 1817 pp. (in two volumes)

11. Guide to the Archival Materials of the German-speaking Emigration to
the United States after 1933. Vol. II. with Sandra H. Hawrylchak. Munich:
K. G. Saur, 1992. 847 pp.

12. Deutschsprachige Exilliteratur seit 1933. Band IV: Bibliographien. With
Konrad Feilchenfeldt and Sandra H. Hawrylchak. Munich: K. G. Saur, 1994.
2150 pp.

13. Guide to the Archival Materials of the German-speaking Emigration to
the United States after 1933. Vol. III. With Sandra H. Hawrylchak. Munich:
K. G. Saur, 1996. 970 pp.

14. Lion Feuchtwanger. A Bibliographic Handbook. Volume 1. German
Editions / Lion Feuchtwanger. Ein bibliographisches Handbuch. Band 1.
Deutschsprachige Ausgaben. With Sandra H. Hawrylchak. Munich: K. G.
Saur, 1998. 394 pp.

 

ca. 1933