Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story

FAIN: FB-38374-03

Andrea Ruth Weiss
Jezebel Productions, Inc. (New York, NY 10001-4754)

No project description available

Media Coverage

New Books (Review)
Author(s): John Leonard
Publication: Harper's
Date: 4/1/2008
URL: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/0081995

I Could Sleep with All of Them (Review)
Author(s): Colm Tóibín
Publication: London Review of Books
Date: 11/6/2008
URL: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n21/colm-toibin/i-could-sleep-with-all-of-them

Search for approval from Mann to Mann (Review)
Author(s): Kathy Hunt
Publication: The Australian
Date: 5/3/2008
URL: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/search-for-approval-from-mann-to-mann/story-e6frg8no-1111116196525

Children of a genius (Review)
Author(s): Allan Massie
Publication: The Spectator
Date: 4/26/2008
URL: http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/628596/children-of-a-genius.thtml

In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain (Review)
Author(s): Ian Brunskill
Publication: The Times (of London)
Date: 5/9/2008

Associated Products

In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story (Book)
Title: In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story
Author: Andrea Weiss
Abstract: Thomas Mann’s two eldest children, Erika and Klaus, were unconventional, rebellious, and fiercely devoted to each other. Empowered by their close bond, they espoused vehemently anti-Nazi views in a Europe swept up in fascism and were openly, even defiantly, gay in an age of secrecy and repression. Although their father’s fame has unfairly overshadowed their legacy, Erika and Klaus were serious authors, performance artists before the medium existed, and political visionaries whose searing essays and lectures are still relevant today. And, as Andrea Weiss reveals in this dual biography, their story offers a fascinating view of the literary and intellectual life, political turmoil, and shifting sexual mores of their times. In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain begins with an account of the make-believe world the Manns created together as children—an early sign of their talents as well as the intensity of their relationship. Weiss documents the lifelong artistic collaboration that followed, showing how, as the Nazis took power, Erika and Klaus infused their work with a shared sense of political commitment. Their views earned them exile, and after escaping Germany they eventually moved to the United States, where both served as members of the U.S. armed forces. Abroad, they enjoyed a wide circle of famous friends, including Andre Gide, Christopher Isherwood, Jean Cocteau, and W. H. Auden, whom Erika married in 1935. But the demands of life in exile, Klaus’s heroin addiction, and Erika’s new allegiance to their father strained their mutual devotion, and in 1949 Klaus committed suicide. Beautiful never-before-seen photographs illustrate Weiss’s riveting tale of two brave nonconformists whose dramatic lives open up new perspectives on the history of the twentieth century.
Year: 2008
Primary URL: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo5620937.html
Primary URL Description: Publisher's website.
Secondary URL: http://www.andreaweiss.net/magicmountain.html
Secondary URL Description: Author's website.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780226886725

Prizes

Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
Date: 5/1/2009
Organization: The Publishing Triangle
Abstract: The Publishing Triangle began giving awards for nonfiction in 1997. Each award is for books published in the preceding year in the United States or Canada (i.e., the 2008 awards below honored books published in 2007). The Judy Grahn Award honors the American writer, cultural theorist and activist (b. 1940) best known for The Common Woman (1969) and Another Mother Tongue (rev. ed., 1984). It recognizes the best nonfiction book of the year affecting lesbian lives-the book may be by a lesbian, for example, about a lesbian or lesbian culture, or both.

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