Theodor Storm, Klaus Groth: Briefwechsel.

Fontane, as we read in an annotation to this correspondence, held Klaus Groth to be "ein famoser Dichter" (p. 98). In another note we are told that Fontane once said to Theodor Storm: "Sie sind und bleiben nun mal mein Lieblingsdichter" (p. 127). Coming from a critic as astute as Fontane, such praise as this commands attention. It can only be a rewarding learning experience to listen into the conversations of these two writers whom Fontane held in such extraordinarily high esteem.

As the editor informs us, not all of the correspondence exchanged between Storm and Groth has survived. Particularly in Groth's letters to Storm there are large gaps. But sixty letters, postcards, and sundry communications have come down to us, and these, in their sequential publication in this tome, certainly help to illuminate the interiors of the two literary minds. Further enhancing the value of this volume is a wealth of elucidative material which lets the reader wander constructively among the poets' …