1916 Josef Čapek Cover Design – Franz Pfemfert's Anthology of Modern Czech Poetry

Josef Čapek Cover Design – Pfemfert's Die Aktions-Lyrik Series

Die Aktions-Lyrik. : Jüngste tschechische Lyrik. Eine Anthologie. Herausgegeben von Franz Pfemfert. Berlin-Wilmersdorf: Verlag der Wochenschrift Die Aktion, 1916.

8vo. 120,[5] pp. Original publisher's red printed wrappers with integral cream paper spine, featuring cover and title-page design by Josef Čapek. Very good condition.

One of the earliest substantial German-language anthologies devoted exclusively to modern Czech poetry. Issued during the First World War by the influential Expressionist publisher and editor of Die Aktion, the volume introduced German readers to the leading voices of Czech Symbolism and early Modernism through translations by Paul Eisner, Rudolf Fuchs, Otto Pick, Emil Saudek, J. V. Löwenbach, Ernst Pollak, Hans Janowitz, and others.

The anthology includes poems by Petr Bezruč, Otokar Březina, Viktor Dyk, Otokar Fischer, Stanislav Hanuš, Karel Hlaváček, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Josef Kodym, Petr Křička, Jan Svatopluk Machar, S. K. Neumann, Antonín Sova, Fráňa Šrámek, Ervín Taussig, Otakar Theer, Karel Toman, and Richard Weiner.

Inscribed by J. Peškář on the half-title with the French quotation: "Les émotions ne se ressemblent pas, mais être ému—voilà l'important." ("Emotions do not resemble one another, but to be moved—that is what matters.")

Inv. i3