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View by appointment- Created by
- Oskar Kokoschka 1886–1980
- Recipient
- Dr J. P. Hodin
- Title
- Letter from Oskar Kokoschka to J.P. Hodin
- Date
- 11 July 1964
- Format
- Document - correspondence
- Collection
- Tate Archive
- Acquisition
- Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate, 2006. Accrual presented by Annabel Hodin, 2020
- Reference
- TGA 20062/4/199/3/16
Description
[Translation/transcription]
Villeneuve
11 July 1964
My dear Master Pepi,
For the most part this is splendid, with enough momentum and enthusiasm to elicit some lust for life from even the Germans, for whom everything is apparently non-objective, whatever they do, the zombies! Olda prepared your manuscript for the post yesterday as registered printed matter. You shall soon have it. For the final edit I'd suggest moving the somewhat tiresome descriptions of the hundreds of images to an appendix, leaving in the text just the main images and their analyses, which form a chain, as you say, as manifestations of an unbroken evolution. Abbreviate the passages where there's nothing much happening in the biography so you don't lose the irresistible momentum. Now I'm looking forward to seeing your book, which will be highly influential, particularly once it's been translated into other languages. People in Germany will be citing it for the next fifty years and they'll be kicking themselves that they've been led such a merry dance by all those impotent scribblers and dabblers! It was the same with Hitler; they only noticed the problem once papa started to feel the heat.
Please give Dr Goldscheider the letter about the London performance of Kleist's Amphitryon so he can reprint it with a reference to your life of OK in his volume of essays, which is due to be published in two years' time. This will be good propaganda for you; it was a wonderful find.
Let me hear from you and the beautyfull one soon.
Ever your dear old friend,
OK
Archive context
- Papers of Josef Paul Hodin TGA 20062 (407)
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- Correspondence by sender TGA 20062/4 (275)
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- Correspondence between Oskar Kokoschka and J.P. Hodin TGA 20062/4/199 (112)
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- Correspondence from Oskar Kokoschka to J.P. Hodin, 1960-9 TGA 20062/4/199/3 (43)
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- Letter from Oskar Kokoschka to J.P. Hodin TGA 20062/4/199/3/16