Gerson Stern Collection. circa 1930-2008

The bulk of the collection consists of typescript drafts, some with handwritten corrections, and private press versions of Gerson Stern's fictional and poetical writings.In particular, a 254 page manuscript of 'Die Waage der Welt,' a seemingly complete manuscript of the play 'Das Ich im Lehnstuhl,' and drafts of several smaller groups of poems are present. Rounding out the collection are two articles on Stern and in his life in the German towns of Holzminden and Kiedrich, and a version of 'Die Waage der Welt' published in a now defunct Brazilian paper Crônica Israelita.A signed copy of 'Stille Wege' with a dedication, number 42 of a limited printing of 50, has been removed to the LBI Library Collection. A photocopy of the dedication is available in the Gerson Stern Collection.Stern was born in Holzminden in 1874 to a family of textile merchants. He grew up in Elberfeld and worked as a salesman in the family business. In 1917 he married Erna Schwarz and settled with her in Kiedrich in 1920, where they lived until emigrating to Jerusalem in 1939. After health complications in 1931 forced Stern to abandon his career as a salesman, he began to pursue his lifelong passion of writing as a career. His first books appeared in Germany during the mid 1930s, and further publications appeared during the 1940s and 1950s after emigration to Jerusalem. Stern died in 1956 in Jerusalem.digitizedA partial inventory is available in the first folder