Volker Michels
© Bernd Georg
Volker Michels
Volker Michels, born in 1943, studied Medicine and Psychology in Freiburg/Breisgau and Mainz. Between 1969 and 2008 he was an editor at Suhrkamp and Insel Verlag. The focus of his work was on Hermann Hesse’s works, whose literary, epistolary and artistic estate he made accessible in more than one hundred themed editions and material volumes on the genesis and reception history. Moreover, he edited the first Collected Edition of Hermann Hesse’s works in 21 volumes.
Volker Michels, born in 1943, studied Medicine and Psychology in Freiburg/Breisgau and Mainz. Between 1969 and 2008 he was an editor at Suhrkamp and Insel Verlag. The focus of his work was on Hermann Hesse’s works, whose literary, epistolary and artistic estate he made accessible in more than one hundred themed editions and material volumes on the genesis and reception history. Moreover, he edited the first Collected Edition of Hermann Hesse’s works in 21 volumes.
PUBLICATIONS
Latest first
Year of Publication: 2024
Volker MichelsYear of Publication: 2024
»It’s Up to the Individual«
Hermann Hesse’s efforts to defy the destructive consequences of the ideas that prevailed in the era in which he lived shaped the author’s life and work in the most diverse ways. This succinct, poignant life portrait illustrates how Hesse’s search for forward-looking alternatives was reflected both in his biography and writings. It also looks at the rancour that his constructive worldview inspired...
Year of Publication: 2024
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2024
Memories of Hans
In order to make the loss of those he had been closest to more bearable, Hermann Hesse had the habit of writing down his memories of the deceased as soon as he received news of their passing, right when the pain was most present. For Hesse, one of the most important functions of literature was preserving the ephemeral in words, conjuring up what was through the most precise depictions. These...
Year of Publication: 2023
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2023
»Surrounded by the Flutters of Western and Eastern Lures«
»Surrounded by the Flutters of Western and Eastern Lures« ‒ the title of this volume of correspondence refers to the wooing of both West and East German cultural institutions and interest groups that set in after Hesse had been awarded the Nobel Prize as well as other distinctions. Hesse was only too aware that these attempts at appropriation in both West and East were intended to...
Year of Publication: 2022
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2022
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life was first published in the Insel-Bücherei series in 1934. Hermann Hesse himself selected the poems; only those that met his own criteria of longevity and quality...
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Year of Publication: 2021
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2021
»The Unbearable Must Be Heard«
The extent to which Hermann Hesse found himself in the limelight in the post-war years was greater than ever before: after winning the Nobel Prize, the »representative of a better...
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For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2020
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2020
»›Great Times‹ Leave Behind Great Piles of Rubble«
This volume comprising more than 500 letters sets in few months after the begin of World War II. These letters depict in many dramatic episodes the extent to which Hermann Hesse and his German...
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For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2019
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2019
At Christmas Time
»My childhood days I think of now, / A long-forgotten fairy tale sound awakens: / Bells ring and on silver shoes / The Christkind walks though the white night.« It’s mainly childhood...
Rights sold to:
Netherlands (Aspekt), Hungary (Helikon)
Domestic rights sales: German audiobook (DAV)
Year of Publication: 2019
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2019
The Magic of Colours
At the age of 40, in the middle of World War I, Hermann Hesse started to paint. To him it was an »outlet, so as to be able to bear life even in the direst of times« and to gain some distance from...
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Russia (Text)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Croatia (Zagrebacka Naklada)
Year of Publication: 2016
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2016
»I’m a person of becoming and of change«
The years between 1924 and 1932 once more show Hermann Hesse to be »a person of becoming and of change«. For him, they begin with the experiment of a new (yet short-lived) marriage. The effects of...
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For further information regarding the rights status of the Collected Letters in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager>>
Year of Publication: 2016
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2016
Discover Yourself!
Self-determination instead of conformation, obstinacy instead of submission – this is the common thread that weaves through all of Hermann Hesse’s works. To him, every person’s disposition...
Rights sold to:
Turkey (Profil)
Year of Publication: 2015
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2015
»A breach into the darkness of time!«
Possibly no other time span saw so many changes in the life of the poet than the years between 1916 and 1923. Even though Hermann Hesse had already left the Germany of the last Emperor for...
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Year of Publication: 2014
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2014
Trees
To Hermann Hesse, trees are symbols that coalesce with memories, symbols of evanescence and rebirth, but also of »all growth, all libidinal, natural life, all insouciance and proliferous...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Kales Press), Italy (Ugo Guanda), Korea (Changbi), Japan (Asahi), Turkey (Kolektif)
Year of Publication: 2013
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2013
»To make something beautiful out of the sad«
This volume assembles the most important of Hermann Hesse’s letters in the years between 1905 and 1914. They show the by now married writer in the second and third decade of his life, at Lake...
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Year of Publication: 2012
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2012
»I am not and will not be obedient!«
This collection of Hermann Hesse’s brilliant early letters conveys the both dramatic and fascinating journey full of obstacles of a gifted missionary’s son, destined for a theological career,...
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Year of Publication: 2011
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 2011
Butterflies
»I have always had a connection with butterflies and other fleeting and ephemeral beauties, while I have never succeeded in maintaining permanent, committed and so-called solid relationships,«...
Rights sold to:
non-exclusive English world rights (Kales Press), Korea (Moonye)
Year of Publication: 1930
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 1930
Narcissus and Goldmund
Two primal principes, inextricably linked: The novice Narcissus, the »wunderkind«, a thinker and ascetic devoted to scholarly and spiritual pursuits, befriends the young student Goldmund at the...
Rights sold to:
US (FSG; Audiobook edition: Blackstone), UK (Peter Owen), Spain (Edhasa), Latin America (Trade / Hardcover edition: Edhasa; Pocketbook edition: RHM), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Editora Record), Portuguese rights (Dom Quixote), France (Calmann-Lévy), Italy (Mondadori), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Poland (Media Rodzina), Czech Republic (Argo), Slovakia (Petrus), Hungary (Helikon), Bulgaria (Riva), Romania (RAO), Lithuania (Trigrama), Serbia (Narodna), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Kastaniotis), Albania (Dukagjini), Ukraine (Folio), Georgia (Sulakauri), Armenia (Antares), Israel (Schocken)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Catalan rights (Empuries/Grup 62), Arabic world rights (Al Kamel), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Alba), Finland (Gummerus), Estonia (Monokkel), Latvia (Atena), Croatia (Zagrebačka), Slovenia (Sanje), India (Hindi; IBH Prakashana), India (Bengali; Kapa Ayanta)
Year of Publication: 1915
Hermann HesseYear of Publication: 1915
Knulp
The three stories from the life of the vagabond Knulp, a descendant of Eichendorff’s »good-for-nothing«, belong among the most delightful pieces of Hermann Hesse’s early prose. In the sequence of...
Rights sold to:
USA & Canada (FSG), Spanish world rights (Caleidoscopio de libros), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (todavia), Portuguese rights (Leya), France (Calmann-Lévy), Italy (Mondadori), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), Sweden (Bakhall), Slovakia (Petrus), Latvia (Mansards), Lithuania (Trigrama), Serbia (Narodna Knjiga), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Dioptra), Albania (Dukagjini), Montenegro (Narodna Knjiga), Ukraine (Folio), Azerbaijan (Parlaq Imzalar), India (Malayalam, Megha Books), Israel (Schocken)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: UK & Commonwealth (Jonathan Cape), Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland (Pikku-idis), Poland (PIW), Czech Republic (Argo), Hungary (Cartafilus), Romania (RAO), Estonia (Monokkel), Lithuania (Alma Littera), Croatia (RAD), Macedonia (Gurga), Iran (Qoqnoos)