title: ["I believe you have created a new type of biography ... ". K. R. Eissler's letters to Wolfgang Hildesheimer].
abstract: These letters, hitherto unpublished except for two and archived in Hildesheimer's estate, were mainly written in 1977/78. They are reactions to Hildesheimer's book about Mozart (1977), centering on two topics: Mozart's relation to his "Bäsle" (female cousin) and their different estimation of The Magic Flute. Eissler emerges as a Mozart connoisseur, "being in love" with the libretto of The Magic Flute which he defends against Hildesheimer. His preoccupation with this opera is testified by a set of manuscripts which are also discussed in this paper. The two writers concurred in their understanding of genius, both of its incommensurable nature and its psychopathology.
authors.affiliation: hartmutbuchholz@t-online.de
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Buchholz
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D015709:Correspondence as Topic / Q000266:history*; D005197:Famous Persons; D005858:Germany; D006663:Historiography; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000266:history*; D009518:New York; D011572:Psychoanalysis / Q000266:history*; D011599:Psychopathology / Q000266:history*