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Klingspor Kalender 1925, 1933

1925 Kalender für das Jahr 1925 (Cover: Klingspor Kalender 1925). Gedruckt und herausgegeben von Gebr. Klingspor. Holzstiche von Willi Harwerth. Hardbound. Offenbach am Main: Gedruckt und herausgegeben von Gebr. Klingspor. €12 from Antiquariaat Engel, Stuttgart, August, '09.

This book represents one of the best finds of an extended stay in Europe. During a one-day trip to Stuttgart, Ursula Kuhn and I headed for the bookshops on Alexanderstrasse. I soon recognized the territory and remembered Antiquariaat Engel and its place above a store for new books. No one was there to help. I found little, and checked "Neue Eingänge" before I left, knowing that chances of finding something were very small. Out popped this Klingspor Kalender. I recognized it immediately because of the 1933 calendar featured in Anne Hobbs' Fables, a calendar I found by luck on eBay five years ago. This hardbound book is slightly larger than the 1933 edition, about 5½" x7¾." It begins with poems on the four seasons and then offers a page for each month. Each month has an astronomical sign at the top. Each month features four or five small figures representing saints or feasts. Do not miss Salome on October 24th! The Sundays are printed in red, and phases of the moon noted. There follow then two pages of fables: Lessing's "Der Besitzer des Bogens," Ernst's "Eine harmlose Geschichte," and Luther's "Gewalt" or LS. Then come seven verse selections, all either fables or very close to fables. The first is Pfeffel's good story of the grainfield where only one stalk raises its head. That is the stalk without fruit; all the others are bowed down by their good fruit. One of the seven, of anonymous authorship, is even titled "Eine Fabel." When King Lion locks up the bear who had censored people's writing, he found that making everyone into writers only produced confusion. "Let the bear go free!" The images are exquisite. Here they are all colored, by contrast with the copy I have from 1933. What a find! Formerly in the possession of Joachim Butterling.

Click on this cover to see the book's fable pages.

1933 Ein Kalender für das Jahr 1933 (Cover: Klingspor Kalender für das Jahr 1933. Mit Fabeln nach Aesop und Anderen (Cover: Klingspor Kalendar für das Jahr 1933). Gedruckt und herausgegeben von Gebr. Klingspor. Holzstiche von Willi Harwerth. Hardbound. Offenbach am Main. $49.50 from Lee Jay Stoltzfus, Lititz, PA, through eBay, May, '04.

This is one of the happiest finds of my twenty-five years of collecting. I first knew of this book from Anne Stevenson Hobbs' book on books in the Victoria and Albert Museum. I had it in my hands when I visited the museum. I presumed that I would never have a chance at finding a copy for the collection. Germany after 1933 was not a good place for preserving ephemera like a calendar. I was amazed when the book came up on eBay and more amazed when no one bid against me! This hardbound book about 4" x 7" begins with a page for each month (2-13). Each page has a bird illustration at the top appropriate to the season. What follows is the liturgical calendar of saints and Sundays, with the Sundays printed in red, and phases of the moon noted. There follow then nineteen pages of fables, about one to a page, each with an illustration (14-32). Hobbs chooses well when she selects the woodcuts of "Der schöpfende Hirsch" (16) and "Der Fuchs und die Schwalbe" (23) for her book. They are exquisite. Her version of the former is colored, while none of the woodcuts here are colored. FC (18) and FK (26) are presented with figures situated at the top and bottom of the page, respectively, with text in between. BF (22) is another excellent woodcut. The woodcut for "Der Bauch und die Glieder" (29) is appropriately macabre. What a treasure! Formerly in the collection of Carl and Margaret Rollins.

Click on this cover to see the book's fable pages.