177 - Thomas Mann. Letter with his own signature. Princeton, October 16, 1940. One page.

Thomas Mann. Letter with his own signature. Princeton, October 16, 1940. One page. Time of announcement: approx. 1:42 p.m. (Schedule subject to change) To Robert Wurmfeld, head of the Emergency Rescue Committee, which worked on behalf of refugees from Nazi-occupied France from 1940 to 1942. - The name of the writer whom Wurmfeld was advocating for on Thomas Mann’s behalf was later, for unknown reasons, typed over multiple times in the letter, rendering it nearly illegible. - “Of course, I would very much like to help XXXXX [instead of ‘quickly,’ handwritten:] gain a foothold in the literary world in America, and I also hope that, in time, I will have the opportunity to do so. At the moment, I am so tied up with a hundred business matters [...] that I can barely keep up with my personal work on the side, and writing articles is completely out of the question for me. Unfortunately, I do not have on hand what I said in Zurich at the time regarding XXXXXXXX.” - Based on the visible fragments of text and the reference to a speech in Zurich, this is Wurmfeld’s request on behalf of Fritz von Unruh (1885–1970), who had lived in southern France since 1935 and was able to flee to the United States via Spain in 1939–40. - On March 20, 1936, Thomas Mann had introduced a reading by Fritz von Unruh in Zurich with a speech (TB III, 278: “After my introduction, Unruh read with delightful verve [...]”). In late August 1940, Thomas Mann had joyfully welcomed his fellow writer back to freedom and safety. On September 19, he sent a recommendation letter for Unruh’s application for entry, written “in considerable haste”; on November 4, he wrote regretfully that Unruh had not attended the reception hosted by the Emergency Rescue Committee. - A year before Thomas Mann, Fritz von Unruh visited liberated Germany after the end of the war and delivered his famous speech “To the Germans” on May 18, 1948, at Frankfurt’s Paulskirche. Not listed in the regesta, but see 40/423, 441, and 458 Folded in half twice; the reverse side is slightly browned and has a tiny tear at the margin.