Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) - Perhaps the most influential dramatist of the 20th century. At the age of 20, Brecht wrote his first full-length play “Baal”. As the war ended, he went to study in Berlin, where he was influenced by a theatre critic, Herbert Ihering. He believed in the educational role of theatre, and avoided realism in his plays such as “Mother Courage and her Children” or “The Seven Deadly Sins”. As Brecht was a Socialist throughout his life, he had to leave Germany in 1933. He lived in Denmark, and later in the USA, until his return in 1949. Brecht also wrote poems and criticism. The rare first edition of Svendborger Gedichte was written during Brecht's exile in Denmark in the 1930's.

Provenance: Fr. Schyberg, later the Danish poet and translator Ivan Malinowski (1926–1989), later the Danish director, writer and Brecht expert, Hans Christian Nørregaard (1943–2019).