Hermann Hesse – Hans Purrmann
Letters 1945-1962

Felix Billeter, Eva Zimmermann (Eds.)

They were soon neighbors for twenty years and became friends, the writer and Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse and the much-travelled painter Hans Purrmann. Both artists lived in Montagnola in Ticino: Hesse on the edge of the village in the spacious Casa Rossa, Purrmann in the picturesque Casa Camuzzi in the old town center. Despite this proximity, they also exchanged letters within the village. They shared the joys of a mature, experienced life, but also the worries of old age. They sometimes added texts to their letters, essays on literature and art. And Hermann Hesse repeatedly provided the painter with new poems. Our volume brings together the letters and postcards as well as the accompanying poems and texts. In addition to facsimiles of some of the letters, biographical photos and reproductions complete the volume, which is structured by atmospheric, contemporary photographs by Angelika Fischer.

176 pages, with numerous illustrations
ISBN: 978-3-937434-40-7