132 - Insel-Bücherei - Ernst Bertram. *Sanctuary of Distress*. Poems. Leipzig, Insel 1945 [corrected: 1946]. Original blue-and-white ornamented paperback (Jenne 78). - Signed copy.

Insel-Bücherei - Ernst Bertram. *Sanctuary of Distress*. Poems. Leipzig, Insel 1945 [corrected: 1946]. Original blue-and-white ornamented paperback (Jenne 78). - Signed copy. Call time: approx. 1:16 p.m. (schedule subject to change) IB 154.2. - One of only 20 copies. - Even the galley proofs of this book, which was scheduled for publication in 1945, were destroyed during an air raid on Leipzig. However, the complete typeset was found at the local printing house, F. Peter Nachf., at the end of the war. - “A new edition was out of the question, and Ernst Bertram would not have been unhappy about this, since the end of the war had definitively rendered the title and the selection [67 poems, some first publications, some from earlier collections] obsolete.” (Karl-Hartmut Krull). - From the galley proofs, publishing house staff set aside 20 copies and marked them with a corresponding handwritten note. - Within this tiny print run, there were two cover variations, both with a typewritten cover label. - On the half-title page is a handwritten pencil note by Bertram: “Author’s copy, received on October 31, 1946, in Cologne” (pencil). That very same day, he inscribed the rare volume in ink: “To my faithful Adalbert Elschenbroich on October 31, 1946 || Cologne, Marienburg || Ernst.” The Germanist Adalbert Elschenbroich (1914–1989) had earned his doctorate under Bertram in 1940 with his dissertation “Jean Paul’s Theory of Genius.” - A revised edition was published in 1951, which included 14 of the poems. - One of the rarest items in the Insel-Bücherei series. - In immaculate condition. - Acquired from Elschenbroich’s estate and has been in a private collection in Hesse ever since. Jenne II, 530 and figs. 1411–1414. - *Mitteilungen IB-Freunde* 14, p. 38ff. (Karl-Hartmut Krull) 18.0 × 11.7 cm. 79, [1] pages.