Homesick for Prague

Joseph Roth wrote for the »Prager Tagblatt« for a longer period of time than for any other publication. The first contribution written by the then student of German for the newspaper, which at that time was read far beyond the borders of Czechoslovakia, took the form of a poem, published in 1917. The last was printed in 1937 when Roth, who had by now become a famous journalist and novelist, had been living in exile for many years. The »Prager Tagblatt« was as well known for its liberal and democratic convictions as for its excellent feature pages, for which all the greatest names in German literature wrote in the nineteen-twenties.

The special style of this newspaper - Max Brod and Friedrich Torberg described its characteristic element as bohème - did not allow for any false pathos. This was most agreeable to Roth, who found its responsible political stance even more important. He was never obliged to break with the »Prager Tagblatt«; it gave him a platform where he could report unreservedly on the developments in Germany.
This edition features over 150 articles by Roth, some of them unknown, revealing that his cooperation with the »Prager Tagblatt« was far more extensive than previously assumed. It follows the printing found in the »Prager Tagblatt« in an unchanged reproduction of the text form.
»Even in this modest occupation, writing newspaper articles as a means of earning a living, Roth proves himself to be an unmatched seismograph of his time.«
Manfred Papst, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Joseph Roth
(1894- 1939) is one of the most wonderful and important German-speaking narrators and journalists of the 20th century. He was born in 1894 in the Galician town of Brody and died in 1939 in exile in Paris.
His works include:
Hiob (1930); The Radetzky March (1932); The Emperor’s Tomb (1938); The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1939).

The Editor
Helmuth Nürnberger, born in 1930, was a teacher of contemporary German literary studies in Flensburg and Hamburg. Co-editor of »Werke, Schriften und Briefe Theodor Fontanes« (Works, Writings and Letters of Theodor Fontane) and the Fontane Handbook. In 1981 he published a volume on Joseph Roth in the series of Rowohlt monographs (12. edition 2012).

Published in the same category
»A Friendship with me is a Perishable Thing«. Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig. Correspondence 1927- 1938. Edited by Madeleine Rietra and Rainer Joachim Siegel. With an epilogue by Heinz Lunzer (2011) Joseph Roth: »Ich zeichne das Gesicht der Zeit (I Draw the Face of Time)«. Essays – Features – Reports. Edited and with a commentary by Helmuth Nürnberger (2010)