A Great Many Years Later

   I’m now reading, in its English translation, the first volume of Reiner Stach’s biography of Franz Kafka. What makes three volumes plausible is the almost incredible scope of the author’s canvas. It’s not exactly “life and times,” since no more than the usual amount of attention is paid to the “larger” events of the times being talked about. Rather, Stach lavishes a great amount of prose on friends or colleagues of Kafka, such as Max Brod, or to the insurance company—and, indeed, industry—when he discusses the beginning of Kafka’s “working” career. You learn much more than about its nominal subject when you read this Kafka biography.

   I was startled, when at the early teens of the 20^th century, a familiar name popped up. The actor Bassermann (Albert B., thanks to the Wikipedia article I just looked up) makes several appearances; he’s then in his forties and very well known and highly regarded.

  Yes, a familiar name! In the late 1940’s or very early 50’s, I think (don’t ask for precision about my life) I went to see a performance of Goethe’s Faust, in German, in the auditorium of some midtown hotel. Uta Hagen was the only performer I had known, having seen her as Desdemona   
in a famous performance with Paul Robeson in the title role of Othello and José Ferrer as Iago.

   In that Faust, Uta Hagen was Margarete who announced before the beginning that the Mephistopheles would be Albert Bassermann, now in his eighties. I had not heard of him, of course, but Uta Hagen made it clear that Bassermann’s participation was a big deal. Only now do I know why.