A killer hunt with Sandemose

A killer on the run?

“Morderjakt” (killer hunt) is the compelling title of the autograph manuscript by the Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose which features at the book auction on 1 October. In Sandemose’s seven-page manuscript, a short story unfolds about a narrator hiding in a luggage trolley on a train travelling across the border between the United States and Canada during the search for the killer of Charles Lindbergh’s son in the early 1930s. The story draws on a number of familiar themes from Sandmose’s writing, including the question of guilt versus innocence.

Return to Fogo

The manuscript is offered alongside a large collection of letters by Aksel Sandemose and a number of first editions and presentation copies to Sandemose’s first wife Dagmar and their daughter Hedda Sandemose. The 30 letters from Aksel Sandemose were written over the course of more than 30 years – from 1930 to 1963 – and are addressed to Dagmar and Hedda. The collection portrays both the ups and downs in Sandemose’s eventful life.

In addition to the more mundane depictions of his everyday life, the collection includes letters he sent home from his return trip to the town of Fogo in Newfoundland in 1938, which had a huge influence on his life and writing and is depicted in his main work “En Flygning kryder sit Spor” (A Fugitive Crosses his Tracks) from 1933:

“It was really strange coming back to Fogo where everyone knows me – it’s probably the only place in the world where I have seriously won fame, just because I exist. But there were some strange things that happened back then, all those years ago […]”.

Letter from Hans Christian Andersen’s travels

The book auction this time features a whole host of letters from Danish and international world names within art, culture, science, philosophy and music. Among other things, an album which, in addition to a plethora of major Danish authors, also contains an unusually long letter written by Hans Christian Andersen to Henriette Collin from a trip to Germany in 1855. It also features a couple of collections of letters from Annelise Garde, the founder of Dansk Grafologisk Selskab (The Danish Society of Graphologists), containing letters from prominent world names such as Niels Bohr, August Strindberg, Franz Liszt, Carl Nielsen and many others.

Preview and auction

The preview of the book auction takes place at our premises at Baltikavej 10 in Copenhagen from 10 am–5 pm on Monday 30 September to 10 am–5 pm on Tuesday 1 October. The hammers of the online auction fall at bruun-rasmussen.dk on Tuesday 1 October from 6 pm.

View the book auction lots