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Feuchtwanger Multimedia

Photographs | Film excerpts | Audio recordings

Photographs

This photograph shows the Feuchtwanger's former residence, Villa Aurora, in Pacific Palisades, California, with a view from the southwest. The 5000 square foot Villa was constructed in the late 1920s by the Los Angeles Times as a "demonstration home" and the progress of the construction was reported in weekly articles between 1927-28. The Feuchtwangers purchased the house in 1943.

This photograph of Lion Feuchwanger was taken by Gerard Decaux.

This photograph of Lion Feuchtwanger was taken during in the 1940s.

This photograph shows Lion Feuchtwanger with Bertolt Brecht in 1947 seated outside Villa Aurora. This photograph was taken shortly before Brecht left the United States, after his testimony before the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. Brecht and Feuchtwanger never saw each other again before Brecht's death in 1956.

This playful photograph taken by Florence Homolka shows Lion Feuchtwanger enjoying a pleasant moment with one of his cats.

This photograph by Florence Homolka shows Marta Feuchtwanger seated in Villa Aurora's front courtyard. She was a great lover of the outdoors and gardening.

This photograph shows Lion Feuchtwanger engaged in one of his greatest passions-buying books. In this case, Feuchtwanger is at Dawson's Bookstore in 1949, formerly in downtown Los Angeles. In the days before freeways, Feuchwanger and his secretary, Hilde Waldo, would make all day treks to browse Dawson's bookstore.

In this photograph taken by Florence Homolka, Feuchtwanger is reading from a 1808 edition of Homer's Iliad beautifully printed by Bodoni in Parma.

Feuchtwanger spent most of his structured daily life dictating his current literary project to his secretary. In this photograph of Feuchtwanger's upstairs study at Villa Aurora is Hilde Waldo. She began working for Feuchtwanger in early 1941 in New York (shortly after his escape from Europe) until his death in 1958.

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"Lion Feuchtwanger" film by Albrecht Joseph

The excerpts below are taken from a short documentary film of Lion Feuchtwanger made in 1956 by Albrecht Joseph. Both an English and German version of the film were made, seen here are excerpts taken from the English version.

Need Quicktime?

Feuchtwangers on Villa Aurora balcony 

(700K QT movie) 

Marta and Lion Feuchtwanger on the balcony of Villa Aurora.

Marta and Lion Feuchtwanger 

(QT movie) 

Marta and Lion Feuchtwanger in the Villa Aurora's courtyard with their two tortoises.

Lion Feuchtwanger dictating 

(4.1MB QT movie) 

Feuchtwanger dictating in German to his secretary, Hilde Waldo, from his book Jefta und seine Tochter.

Lion Feuchtwanger discusses chosing a topic 

(2.7MB QT movie) 

"Then usually there are about fourteen projects which I feel I have to get through with. Then I finish one of the fourteen books and then I have a new look at the outline. And then, strangely enough, it turns out that there are again fourteen books I have to write."

Feuchtwanger discusses the evolution of a novel 

(4.7MB QT movie) 

"Often I am asked how long does it take to write a novel. [To answer it completely?] the writing and dictating usually doesn't take more than 2 or 3 years. But it takes a long time before a novel matures. I dare say really from the first inspiration until I am able to write [?] is about 20 to 30 years. In a certain sense, the novel has to be finished before I start writing it."

Feuchtwanger discusses the success of a piece of literature 

(3.7MB QT movie) 

"If the author has achieved, then his book after he is finished lives its own life, independent of the author who wrote it. I talked about the many literary projects I want to carry out. I think I talked about 100 - 200 such projects. I don't feel I exagerate. Here's a folder which contains some such projects. There are I think four or five such folders. Here is, for instance, the outline of a novel of a man in a concentration camp ..."

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Audio recordings from "Lion Feuchtwanger" film

Lion Feuchtwanger discusses chosing a topic (950K AIFF sound) 

"Then usually there are about fourteen projects which I feel I have to get through with. Then I finish one of the fourteen books and then I have a new look at the outline. And then, strangely enough, it turns out that there are again fourteen books I have to write." 

Feuchtwanger discusses the evolution of a novel (1.2MB AIFF sound) 

"Often I am asked how long does it take to write a novel. [To answer it completely?] the writing and dictating usually doesn't take more than two or three years. But it takes a long time before a novel matures. I dare say really from the first inspiration until I am able to write [?] is about 20 to 30 years. In a certain sense, the novel has to be finished before I start writing it." 

Lion Feuchtwanger dictating (400K AIFF sound) 

Feuchtwanger dictating in German to his secretary, Hilde Waldo, from his book Jefta und seine Tochter.Lion Feuchtwanger reading from his historical novel Die Jüden von Toledo.

For more information contact the Feuchtwanger Librarian.