July 18, 2008
The Kafka ‘treasure trove’ story goes on …
This is the woman everyone wants to talk to about the possible “treasure trove” of Kafka material stashed away in a Tel Aviv apartment for the last 40 years.
Her name is Hava Hoffe and she was photographed outside her Tel Aviv apartment on Tuesday by HaAretz photographer Dan Keinan.
What’s the big deal with this lady? Here it is: Hava and her sister Ruth inherited a Tel Aviv flat belonging to their mother, Esther Hoffe, who died last year. Esther Hoffe had been the secretary to the executor of Franz Kafka‘s estate, Max Brod, who died in Israel in 1968 and left Esther most of the materials in his personal archive. In the 1980s, she sold Kafka’s manuscript of The Trial for close to $2 million. And while some other materials were smuggled out of Israel over the years, during her lifetime Esther Hoffe mostly refused to let researchers look at the rest of the archive.
Now that she’s died, journalists and Kafka scholars have begun descending on Tel Aviv in hopes of finding out what else might be locked away in the apartment.
HaAretz‘s Ofer Aderet broke the story earlier this month and has been writing quite a bit about it ever since. As of Thursday, Hava Hoffe still had not permitted anyone to inspect the documents in her mother’s apartment.
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what’s in there. I’m not expecting much, though. From what I’ve read, Israeli authorities had to remove cats and dogs from Esther Hoffe’s apartment before she died because the neighbors complained about the smell.
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Just checking up on you, Steve.
Wow, $2 million. I would think that if they had more manuscripts of worth that Esther Hoffe would have sold them. One thing is for sure, Kafka must be turning over in his grave. He asked Max Brod to destroy all these works. Max didn’t listen. Too bad that Max didn’t do more for himself with these works – not to say greed is good cause it’s not – but not only would he have benefited but the whole world. I read the Trial some time last last year. I am more of a Metamorphosis and the Country Doctor type of Kafka reader but I did read his diaries many years ago.
Stopping by to say hello, Steve.
There’s got to be more undiscovered treasure laying around, whether or not in Hoffe’s apartment. Sometimes it takes years for these works to surface. Let’s hope we can find another golden egg or two!