Albert Drach Works. Critical Edition 2

Begun in 2002 and since then supported by the science fund (Wissenschaftsfonds), the study edition of Albert Drach`s works confirmed and enhanced the presence of the Bächner-prize winning author of 1988. The volumes published to date have established a sound base for acknowledging Albert Drach`s condign place in the Austrian literature of the 20th century. The project currently submitted aims to finalise the critically commented reader`s edition, which meets the requirements not only of scholarly use, but also of interested readership. Drach`s oeuvre is closely related to the historic markers of the 20th century and to the circumstances of his own life; he was persecuted as a Jew and forced to go into French exile in 1938, where he not only survived despite many adventurous difficulty and hardships, but also worked on his literature. After his return to his original Austrian homeland in 1947/8, he suffered from difficult circumstances of his remigration and had to take up his learned profession as a lawyer. His entire body of work, the autobiographical and essayistic as well as his fiction, has to be read in context of his experience with persecution, and also as his constant attempt to establish himself as a writer. For the commentary on his work, which exemplifies both the historic background and literary relations, and for the study of the genesis of his texts, his estate in the "Österreichisches Literaturarchiv" of the Austrian National Library, is used; this estate has been processed and sorted by Drach`s biographer, who is also involved in this project. Every volume comes supplemented with a narrative afterword, which illustrates the connectivity of life and work in an easily intelligible way. The volumes yet to be published in this edition include first of all the famous novel "Das große Protokoll gegen Zwetschkenbaum" (translated as "The Massive File on Zwetschkenbaum", 1995), written 1939 and first published 1964. In Drach`s estate, previously unpublished pages for a continuation were found, as well as documentation about its original publication and its reception. Also yet to be edited are "Kleine Protokolle" (Small Protocols) and several further, partially unpublished narrations from Drach`s creative period spanning 70 years. A novelty in the publication history of Drach`s works, the edition aims to publish a volume of plays; most of them have not been published yet, others are no longer available. In the estate, these plays exist in a number of versions and will be critically edited. A publications of Drach`s unpublished essays promises most important new insights to Drach`s life and work, as they shed light on his way of thinking and his aesthetic criteria. The expertise on the Final Report on the Study Edition of the Works of Albert Drach, project no. P16032-G06 mentions that a continuation of this project is most important in the interest of the study of literature.

The Study Edition 2 of Albert Drachs works, sponsored by the Science Fund (Wissenschaftsfonds), connects to the Study Edition 1, which since 2002 helped to consolidate the high esteem of the Georg-Büchner-Prize winner of 1988. The current volumes lay the foundation for a critical appraisal of Drach, which will ultimately secure him his well-deserved place in contemporary literature. The now complete project is a continuation of the commented edition, which not only satisfies the needs of close scholarly reading, but is also of value for the interested reader in general. Drachs works were affected by both the historical turnarounds of the 20 th century and his forced exile into France in 1938 on account of his Jewish heritage. He survived under difficult and adverse circumstances but found opportunities to write. After his return to Austria in 1947/8, he suffered from the problematic conditions of re- immigration and was forced to fall back on his financially more consistent job as a lawyer. His autobiographical and fiction works, poems, and essays must be seen before this background of persecution and Drachs consistent efforts to gain a foothold as a freelance writer. For the genesis of the texts and for the commentary of the works, explaining both the historic background and literary references, the editors made use of Albert Drachs literary estate in the Austrian literary archives (Österreichisches Literaturarchiv) of the Austrian National Library. Eva Schobel, Drachs biographer and a member of this projects editing team, has sorted and classified the estate in an earlier project. Every volume of the edition is complemented with facsimiles and a narrating epilogue. The most recently published volumes of the edition comprise the famous novel Das Große Protokoll gegen Zwetschkenbaum, written in 1939 and first published in 1964. They also include the first ever collective publication of Drachs poems as well as the narrative Das Goggelbuch, which Drach wrote in 1942 in southern France while fleeing from the Nazis. In Spring 2013, the volume Amtshandlung gegen einen Unsterblichen. Die kleinen Protokolle will present Drachs early stories, mostly written in the late 1920s. Study Editions 1 and 2 provide for the contemporary readership an annotated access to a distinguished writers works from their beginnings to those written during his most productive phase in the 1970s, all on the basis of well-grounded scholarly research.