Swiss library
The Swiss Library is a 1,917 to 1,960 in Switzerland in Rascher Verlag published by Eduard Korrodi published book series with German Swiss literature.
Edition history
Rascher from Publisher & Co. in Zurich in 1917 with the memories of Ferdinand Hodler of Fritz Widmann , Swiss Library (SB) as a new German-language book series opened. By 1919 another 14 titles followed up to SB 15, Die Junge Schweiz (edited by E. Korrodi), in order to remain silent until 1940, apart from an interlude in 1923 with three editions of Gottfried Keller's novellas (SB 16-18). That year only Robert Burns appeared : Liedli . Schwyzertütsch by August Corrodi (SB 19). It was not until 1944 that the series swung into a final four-year edition cycle with a total of 23 titles, and then finally fell silent with Robert Gilgiens Bergeruf / Vetter Hans - the volume was illustrated by Willi Schnabel . Although there was still a volume SB 43 in 1949, this was only a new edition of Mark Twain's Rigireise, previously published as SB 38 . This volume came onto the book market again in 1960, until on May 28, 1968 the publishing house of the acquisitions department of the Swiss National Library (today: Swiss National Library) informed that the series would no longer be continued. The publishing house Rascher & Co., founded in 1908, went into liquidation in 1973 .
content
Since Max Rascher was able to acquire the publishing rights to Gottfried Keller's work, which expired at the end of 1920, from the German publisher Cotta in 1918 , the focus of the series was on this author, of whom 19 volumes with novels were finally available. Another volume brings Keller's reviews of works by Jeremias Gotthelf (SB 4), and Max Hochdorfs : Gottfried Keller in the European Thought (SB 14) is about Keller's work.
CF Meyer is represented with three novellas in three volumes, as is Jeremias Gotthelf. Finally, other titles concern Swiss "classics" such as Goethe and Lavater by Hans Bodmer (SB 2), Pestalozzi . Man and poet in their own and contemporary judgment (SB 6) and Albrecht von Haller : The Alps and other poems (SB 13).
Further focus was on Swiss poetry: Lyrical confession. Zeitgedichte (SB 5), O my fatherland. Switzerland in domestic songs from the 14th to the 20th century (SB 8), and dialect literature such as Das poetic Zurich by Robert Faesi and Eduard Korrodi (SB 9), Swiss German proverbs (SB 3) or Swiss German . Samples of Swiss dialect from old and new times (SB 7).
The overall character of the series can be viewed as German-Swiss. Last but not least, it expresses the publisher's conviction that the Swiss literature published in Switzerland is on a par with that published in Germany.
Equipment, scope and price
The series leaned in their equipment first of the Leipzig Insel Verlag published Austrian Library in which 1915 to 1917 as a counterpart of the 1912-founded Island Library was moved. This series relationship is particularly evident from the fact that there are also red paperback bindings for titles 1 to 9/10, which are similar to the remaining bindings in the volumes of the Austrian Library.
The first small volumes had uniform, simple, light green cardboard covers with white title plates framed in red (corresponds to the Swiss national colors), on which the volume number is given in addition to the entry of the author and the book title. On the spine of the book, the ribbons had narrow spine labels, also with volume numbers.
The cover of numbers 11 to 18 had small vignettes that formed a kind of picture sheet with Swiss motifs , although the artist was not named.
From SB 19 ( Robert Burns : Liedli ) matt all linen with changing colors was used for binding. Now the title on the back was printed in monochrome or gold embossing , and dust jackets , the color of which differed from the linen cover, were used. On these there are title vignettes by Viktor Hasslauer , who is mentioned for the first time as a book designer in the series in the imprint of SB 36. In the later editions, the volume number is not given in the book, on the book cover or on the dust jacket. There are also editions of some titles in half leather or the use of cover strips for advertising purposes. Finally, remnants of early titles were later bound in linen and provided with dust jackets.
The publisher's signature of the Rascher-Verlag - a Quadriga in full swing - is reproduced on the upper edge of the cover.
Several volumes in the series, such as SB 39 to 41 by Jeremias Gotthelf: Erdbeeri-Mareili , Hans Joggeli der Erbvetter and Michels Brautschau as well as Robert Gilgien Berge Ruf / Vetter Hans (SB 42), were illustrated. In this case the title vignettes were also created by the illustrators .
The volume of the volumes published in octave format ( 8 ° ) ranged from a minimum of 48 (3 sheets ) to a maximum of 226 pages (15 sheets); in the latter case the title was edited as a double volume. Most of the tapes did not exceed 100 pages. The edition was up to 5,000 copies. There was only a new edition with Mark Twain's Rigireise .
In 1919 the retail price of the simple, stapled volume was 1.50 francs, the bound cost 2.50 francs . In 1960 the last title (SB 43) then cost 5.60 francs.
literature
- Rätus Luck: The Swiss Library. A series from the Rascher publishing house, Zurich . In: Inselbücherei. Messages for friends . Insel, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1999, No. 19, p. 35, ISBN 3-458-16959-8 / ISSN 0946-3089 .
Web links
- The volumes of the Swiss Library in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Luck 1999, p. 37.
- ↑ Acquiring publishing rights shortly before they expire is a common publishing practice: the price is then no longer too high, but the acquiring publisher is already present on the book market with the corresponding works at the time of their expiry, which is a considerable economic one for competing companies Poses a risk for its own similar publications.