A conversation about German writer Hans Fallada

with Liesl Schillinger, Ulrich Ditzen and Dennis Johnson
in In Memoriam, Books
on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 * * * * *

play

E-mail this video:

Distribute this video:

Share on:

Close
Description

A conversation about German writer Hans Fallada with Ulrich Ditzen, son of Hans Fallada, Liesl Schillinger of "The New York Times" and Dennis Johnson of Melville House publishing

Video Share Options
Share
Buy Amazon DVD
Keywords:
Secret Police
writer
Germany
gestapo
Hans Fallada

In order to download Charlie Rose podcasts to iTunes for transfer to an iPod, you must have iTunes installed. If you do, please click the following link to download the podcast for this interview:

itpc://www.charlierose.com/view/itunes/10224

Otherwise, close this window to continue viewing.

Close
  • Comments 4
    Post new comment
    1. unclehelmut  06/08/2009 10:17 PM Report

      Schillinger ends the conversation saying the book is gripping. She's right. Somehow Melville House has decided that we should have a chance to read a book like this. Let's just be thankful for Melville's choice to publish, for the book and what it stands for: individual choices and conscience still count.

    2. Dennis_Johnson  04/16/2009 05:33 PM Report

      Jake, I'm sorry you think it all comes down to personal greed. I'm sorry, that is, for your sake -- that's an awfully limited way of thinking. I mean, really? You think someone gets into book publishing to make money? You think there's big bucks in selling translated fiction?

      REMant, you can read about the difficulties Hans Fallada faced when the Nazis discovered his book had been made into a movie by Jewish producers, such as the revocation of his ability to sell foreign rights and his eventual placement on the Undesirable Writers blacklist, in Jenny Williams' biography of Fallada, More Lives Than One.

    3. Jake  04/16/2009 12:25 AM Report

      Re: the first comment: Anyone involved with the publication of a book, be he or she editor, writer, or publisher--who appears on tv is there for one reason:to promote the book of course, and "sell it."

      The interview was compelling but I had to keep reminding myself that the original idea for the book was not Fallada's, but came from someone else, as did the dossier upon which the book was based, the plot, the story, even the characters. Fallada, of couse, put it all together. No small accomplishment. Writing it in 24 days was no small accomplishment either (under the influence of morphine perhaps?)but such bursts of creative energy "under the infuence," as it were, of one drug or another, are not unheard of. One thinks of DeQuincy, Coleridge and any number of other writers.

    4. REMant  04/15/2009 02:45 PM Report

      Fallada was not exactly forgotten nor escaped film and TV production : http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0266325/ but only The Little Man was made outside of Germany. I don't know what Jewishness has to do with it, or with his other works save one. Can this be an advertising ploy?

  • Transcript