Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
German dramatist, stage director, and poet (The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage and Her Children, etc.)
Bertolt Brecht
excerpt from The Threepenny OperaSome say that we should live like famous sages
On empty stomachs and ascetic reading
Within a hovel where the rats are breeding.
Preserve me from such lunatics in cages!
Let those who like it live the simple way
I've had (between ourselves) too much by far.
No animal from here to Zanzibar
Would live that simple life a single day.
What help is freedom? What good to me?
Only the well-to-do live pleasantly!
Those brave adventurers of light and leading
Who risk their skins in search of new sensations
In order that their truthful publications
May give the bourgeoisie exciting reading -
Just look at them in their domestic station
See how far they go with frigid wife to bed,
Their gloomy thoughts five thousand years ahead
And one ear cocked for further acclamation.
Can we call that living? Don't you agree:
Only the well-to-do live pleasantly?
And I myself have felt the inclination
To lead a great and solitary existence
But when I saw such men at shorter distance
I told myself - that's not your occupation.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise
And bravery brings with fame a bitter grave:
So you are poor and lonely, wise and brave,
And now not even greatness satisfies.
Then let this adage your motto be:
Only the well-to-do live pleasantly.
Bertolt Brecht
A Worker Reads HistoryWho built the seven gates of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed.
Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses,
That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it?
In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished
Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome
Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song.
Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend
The night the seas rushed in,
The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.
Young Alexander conquered India.
He alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet
was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?
Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War.
Who triumphed with him?
Each page a victory
At whose expense the victory ball?
Every ten years a great man,
Who paid the piper?
So many particulars.
So many questions.
Current Brecht titles available
1. Brecht, Bertolt
Leben des Galilei
London: Heinemann Educational, 1969
hardcover, 193pp inc. biblio., cloth moderately soiled else VG/-- (no dj). #2445
$35.00
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2. Brecht, Bertolt
Hundert Gedichte, 1918-1950
Berlin: Aufbau, 1952
Leinen, 310 S., Inhalt, VG+/-- (kein Umschlag) #2495
$30.00
3. Brecht, Bertolt
The Life of Galileo
London: Methuen, 1971
trade paperback, 122pp. As new in card covers. #4500
$7.50
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4. Brecht, Bertolt
Theatre complet VII: L'Opera de quat'sous; La Resistible ascension d'Arturo Ui; La Decision
Paris: L'Arche, 1968
trade paperback, later printing, 262pp. Previous owner name blocked out on title page else Vg #4754
$20.00
5. Brecht, Bertolt
Der kaukasische Kreidekreis
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985
paperback, 127pp. Vg+ #7180
$10.00
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6. Brecht, Bertolt
Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1981
paperback, 11th edition, 125pp. Vg+ #7181
$12.00
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7. Brecht, Bertolt
Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthofe
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985
paperback, 15th edition, 149pp. Vg+ #7182
$13.00
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8. Brecht, Bertolt
Mann ist Mann
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980
paperback, 7th edition, 99pp. Vg+ #7184
$12.50
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9. Brecht, Bertolt
Die Mutter
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980
paperback, 1st edition, 88pp. Vg+ #7185
$12.00
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10. Brecht, Bertolt
Leben des Galilei
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1964
paperback, later printing, 161pp. Vg #7186
$13.00
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11. Brecht, Bertolt
Der Jasager und Der Neinsager: Vorlagen, Fassungen und Materialien
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1981
paperback, 17th edition, 112pp. Very good. #7187
$12.00
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12. Brecht, Bertolt
The Good Person of Szechwan
London: Methuen, 1970
trade paperback, transl. by John Willett, 109pp. Few ink marks inside else Vg in card covers. #8014
$6.00
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13. Brecht, Bertolt
Erste Stucke: Zweiter Band; Leben Eduards des Zweiten von England; Mann ist Mann
Frankfut am Main: Suhrkamp, 1962
hard bound with two duplicate dust jackets, later printing (70-90 tausend), 327pp. Includes Leben Eduards des Zweiten von England; Mann ist Mann; und Das Elefantenkalb. Vg in Vg dust jackets. #10799
$25.00
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14. Brecht, Bertolt
Der kaukasische Kreidekreis
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1963
paperback, 142pp. Moderately cocked else Vg in green jacket #10800
$8.00
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15. Brecht, Bertolt
Gesammelte Werke: Band 12, Prosa 2
Zurich: Buchclub Ex Libris, 1977
soft bound in grey limp cloth, Pp375-727. Spine lightly soiled else Vg #10801
$10.00
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16. Brecht, Bertolt
Leben des Galilei
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1968
paperback, later pritnting, 131pp. Slightly cocked else Vg in purple dust jacket. #10803
$10.00
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17. Brecht, Bertolt
Der Kinnhaken und andere Box-und Sportgeschichten
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1995
ISBN: 3518388959
Taschenbuch, erste Einflage, 165pp. Entire block is moderately waved. Ten lines of ink-scored text in total else Vg. #13025
$10.00
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18. Brecht, Bertolt
Mr. Puntila and his Man Matti
London: Eyre Methuen, 1977
paperback, 95pp, vg+ in wraps. #H0039
$12.00
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19. Brecht, Bertolt
The Life of Galileo
London: Methuen, 1971
ISBN: 0416630200
trade paperback, later printing transl. by Desmond I. Vesey, 122pp. Very good in card covers with small bookstore stamp to half-title page. #14987
$5.50
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20. Brecht, Bertolt
The Life of Galileo
London: Methuen, 1966,
trade paperback, later printing trans. by Desmond I. Vesey, 122pp. Faint highlights with a few scored lines of text to first quarter else very good in moderately creased covers. #14988
$5.50
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21. Brecht, Bertolt
Parables for the Theatre: Two Plays by Bertolt Brecht; The Good Woman of Setzuan, The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971
ISBN: 0140480633
mass market paperback, later printing, 207pp. Moderately foxed throughout else very good (text is clean). #14989
$3.50
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22. Brecht, Bertolt
Saint Joan of the Stockyards
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969
ISBN: 0253201276
hard bound, 1st edition, frontis., 336pp including index. Vg/-- From the Fred & Gert Narvey Collection. 25 percent of the net sale of this volume will support alternative media and be donated to your local Independent Media Centre - IMC-Winnipeg. Extra shipping fee applies to the United States. #IMC-15241
$5.00
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23. Brecht, Bertolt
Mother Courage and her Children: A Chronicle of the Thirty Years War
London: Methuen, 1971
ISBN: 0416630103
paper bound, later printing, transl. by Eric Bentley, 81pp. Covers a bit scuffed and margins profusely pencil marked with notations. Fair. #14986
$1.49
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24. Brecht, Bertolt
The Threepenny Opera
NY: Grove, 1964
mass market paperback, 1st Black Cat edition, 110pp. Very good. #14994
$2.95
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25. Brecht, Bertolt (ed. By Ralph Manheim and John Willett)
Collected Plays Volume 1
NY: Vintage, 1971
ISBN: 0394716701
mass market paperback, edition not stated, 441pp. Very good. Includes Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; The Life of Edward the Second of England; and Five One-Act Plays. #14992
$11.95
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26. Brecht, Bertolt (ed. By Ralph Manheim and John Willett)
Collected Plays Volume 1
NY: Vintage, 1972
ISBN: 0394717597
mass market paperback, edition not stated, 467pp. Very good. Includes Life of Galileo; The Trial of Lucullus; and Mother Courage and Her Children #14993
$11.95
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27. Brecht, Bertolt [Hrsg. - John Fuegi, Reinhold Grimm und Jost Hermand]
Brecht-Jahrbuch 1977
Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1977
paperback, 222pp, vg+ in wraps #H0043
$16.00
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28. Brecht, Bertolt with Eric Bentley
The Jewish Wife and Other Short Plays
NY: Grove, 1965
mass market paperback, 2nd edition, 172pp. Minor bump top corner else very good. #14991
$3.75
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