ERNST CASSIRER PAPERS GEN MSS 98 by T. Michael Womack TABLE OF CONTENTS Series Page Boxes Ernst Cassirer, 1874-1945 4 Description of the Papers 7 I. Books (1901-1941) 14 35 II. Essays and Lectures (1893-1945) 57 17 III. Correspondence (1895-1958) 87 1 IV. Personal Papers (1892-1899) 89 2 Oversize (1906-1936) 92 2 Appendix 95 -------------------- Total Boxes: 59 Linear Feet: 26.5 ERNST CASSIRER, 1874-1945 Ernst Alfred Cassirer, philosopher, educator, writer, and prominent member of the neo-Kantian movement, was born on July 28, 1874, in Breslau, Silesia, the fourth child of the wealthy Jewish tradesman Eduard Cassirer and his wife Eugenie, nee Cassirer. In October 1880 Cassirer entered the Johannes- Gymnasium in Breslau and was graduated in the spring of 1892 with highest honors. In the fall he entered university. For the next seven years, in the time-honored German tradition, Cassirer attended several universities which had eminent professors within his various fields of study. At Berlin and Leipzig he studied jurisprudence and at Heidelberg, Berlin, and Munich, German philosophy and literature. In the summer of 1894, while taking Georg Simmel's course on Kant at Berlin, Cassirer was introduced to the work of Hermann Cohen, leader of the Marburg School of neo-Kantianism. In 1896 Cassirer went to Marburg to study philosophy under Cohen and also mathematics. On July 14, 1899 Cassirer successfully defended his inaugural dissertation, "Descartes' Critique of Mathematical and Natural Scientific Knowledge," at the University of Marburg. Upon receiving his doctorate, Cassirer returned to live with his parents, who, in the meantime, had moved to Berlin. In 1901 while attending the wedding of a close relative in the same city, Cassirer met his cousin Toni, daughter GEN MSS 98 Ernst Cassirer Papers of Otto Bondy and his wife Julie, nee Cassirer, from Vienna. They were married a year later in Vienna. After a short residence in Munich, Cassirer, his wife, and the first of their three children moved to Berlin. Between October 1903 and October 1919 Cassirer lived in Berlin and wrote several of his major works. His mentor, Hermann Cohen, urged him to embark upon an academic career, but Cassirer exhibited little desire to live in a small university town in an atmosphere of gossip and latent anti-Semitism. He preferred the more cosmopolitan atmosphere of Berlin, where most of his and his wife's relatives lived and where he had use of the excellent state and university libraries. In Imperial Germany, university appointments were rarely given to Jews. In 1906, however, Cassirer was able to obtain the position of Privatdozent at the University of Berlin, a post he held for the next thirteen years. Only in the more liberal Weimar Republic did Cassirer receive a professorship. In October 1919 he assumed the chair of philosophy at the newly founded University of Hamburg. In 1930 he was elected rector of the university. After his expulsion by the Nazis from the University of Hamburg in May 1933, Cassirer accepted a position at Oxford University, where he lectured for two years. In 1935 he was offered and accepted a professorship at the University of Goeteborg. Cassirer's six years in Sweden represented a very productive period in his life. He mastered the Swedish language and obtained Swedish citizenship. In the summer of 1941 Cassirer accepted an invitation (by Charles Hendel, then chairman of the department of philosophy) to come to Yale University as a visiting professor. Cassirer's original intention was to remain in the U.S. for two years and then return to Sweden, but the United States's entry into World War II altered his plans. At the end of two years he was unable to return to Sweden and willingly agreed to prolong his contract with Yale University for another year. During this period Cassirer received an invitation to teach at Columbia University, and in the summer of 1944 he left New Haven for New York, where he died on April 13, 1945. For further biographical information, see: 1) Ernst Cassirer, "Lebenslauf," following Descartes' Kritik der mathematischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis, Universitaet Marburg, 1899, p. 103 [Yale University Library, German Philosophical Tracts, vol. 4]; 2) Toni Cassirer, Mein Leben mit Ernst Cassirer, Hildesheim: Gerstenberg Verlag, 1981; 3) Walter Eggers and Sigrid Meyer, Ernst Cassirer: An Annotated Bibliography, New York: Garland Press, 1988; 4) Dimitry Gawronsky, "Ernst Cassirer: His Life and Work" in The Philosophy of Ernst Cassirer, ed. by Paul Arthur Schilpp, Evanston, Illinois: The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., 1949, pp. 1-37; 4) David R. Lipton, Ernst Cassirer: The Dilemma of a Liberal Intellectual in Germany, 1914-33, University of Toronto Press, 1978; and 5) Donald Phillip Verene, ed., Symbol, Myth, and Culture: Essays and Lectures of Ernst Cassirer, 1935-1945, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPERS The Ernst Cassirer Papers contain research notes and manuscript drafts of books, essays, and lectures as well as correspondence and personal papers which document aspects of the life and career of Ernst Cassirer, philosopher, scholar, educator, and university rector. The material spans the years 1892 to 1958, with the bulk falling between 1910 and 1945. The collection includes gifts from the Toni Cassirer Estate (1964) and from Charles Hendel (1971), as well as material purchased on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund (1987). Early History of the Papers It is unlikely that Cassirer brought all of his papers with him when he came to the United States in the summer of 1941, as he originally planned to stay for only two years. It is also unlikely that the papers were shipped during the war. Thus, it would appear probable that the bulk of Cassirer's papers were shipped to the United States only after his death and that Toni Cassirer or some other family member was responsible for the arrangement of GEN MSS 98 Ernst Cassirer Papers the papers prior to their transfer to Yale University. The Ernst Cassirer Papers came to Yale primarily through the efforts of Charles Hendel, a good friend of Cassirer. Hendel assisted Cassirer with the publication of An Essay on Man, and after Cassirer's death saw The Myth of the State to press, introduced the English edition of The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, and co-translated The Problem of Knowledge. On February 20, 1964 the Ernst Cassirer Papers became property of the Yale University Press by agreement with Richard J. Auerbach, executor of the estate of Toni Cassirer, who had died in 1961. Soon thereafter an inventory of the collection was prepared by Yale University Press. Individual envelope numbers from 1-219 were assigned in red ballpoint ink. (No. 220 was added some years later.) The order of the envelopes is random and probably reflects the manner in which they were removed from the shipping crates. From 1964 to 1987 by agreement with the Yale Press the papers were housed in the deposit cage of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where they could be seen only with special permission. In 1985-86 Yale Press employed Timothy Kircher, then a graduate student in the department of history, to prepare analyses of each of the 220 envelopes. Kircher's analyses are grouped by subject. The YUP and Kircher lists proved to be quite helpful in arranging the papers and are located in Box 1, folders 1 and 2, respectively. The literary rights to the papers are held by the Yale University Press, but on January 19, 1987, physical rights of the papers were transferred to the Beinecke Library. Remarks on the Previous Arrangement of the Papers The early arrangement of the papers is described in some detail in an appendix to Symbol, Myth, and Culture: Essays and Lectures of Ernst Cassirer, 1935-1945, edited by Donald Phillip Verene (1979). The 220 envelopes that originally contained the papers ranged in thickness from an eighth of an inch to a foot or more. The term "envelope" is used generically, for although most of the material in the collection was housed in mailing envelopes, some of the units were so large that they were actually bound up in heavy wrapping paper with string, like bundles of laundry. Some of the mailing envelopes were new, while others were used. In the case of used ones, Cassirer, or probably his wife, usually crossed out the old address and wrote on blank space somewhere on the front or back of the envelope. A large number of the envelopes are imprinted with the name Goeteborgs Hoegskola. It was not felt necessary to retain the envelopes or wrappers intact, but only those portions on which handwriting appeared. Much valuable information for the arrangement of the papers was obtained from the outside of the original envelopes. Care was taken to transcribe this information as accurately as possible. Occasionally, however, the handwriting is ambiguous or illegible. In such instances, the best effort of the transcriber is presented, followed by a question mark in brackets. Most of the handwriting appears to be that of Ernst Cassirer. That which is not Cassirer's hand may be that of his wife or some other family member. The writing on the envelopes seems not to represent a well-planned or thorough description of the contents. Frequently, it appears to have been done in a hurried manner and is often sketchy and vague and occasionally wrong. Information written down and subsequently crossed out on individual envelopes was interpreted as a change of mind and thus not transcribed. Punctuation has been standardized as far as possible. Abbreviations have not been expanded. In the present arrangement all material relating to the same book title is grouped together. The Myth of the State, for example, is made up of material found in fifteen different envelopes. In some instances it was felt necessary to split the contents of an envelope when its parts clearly warranted such action. Envelope #103, for example, is split into five parts. But because the material in the Ernst Cassirer Papers has been known and cited according to envelope number, the old numbers are cited in the current box and folder list. The appendix contains transcriptions of the information written on the original envelopes (or wrappers), arranged numerically by envelope GEN MSS 98 Ernst Cassirer Papers number, with the present location of each envelope enclosed in brackets. The envelope itself is the first item in the designated folder, usually enclosed in acid-free paper. Scattered throughout the collection are many intact envelopes, e.g. Box 36, folder 683; Box 41, folder 810; and Box 50, folder 1030. One intact wrapper was retained for the researcher's curiosity, i.e. Box 57, folder 1140. The word "blank" is used to indicate that nothing was written on the envelope. Present Arrangement of the Papers The papers are housed in fifty-seven boxes divided into four series: Books, Essays and Lectures, Correspondence, and Personal Papers. Two boxes of Oversize material are found at the end of the collection. Series I, Books (Boxes 1-35), contains drafts of the majority of Ernst Cassirer's published works, alphabetically arranged by title. Major works include Das Erkenntnisproblem in der Philosophie und Wissenschaft der neueren Zeit in four volumes; An Essay on Man, the first book Cassirer composed in English; Kants Leben und Lehre; Leibniz' System in seinen wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen; The Myth of the State, published posthumously by Charles Hendel; and Philosophie der symbolischen Formen in three volumes with the draft for a fourth volume. The collection contains single drafts of Erkenntnisproblem, Freiheit und Form, Goethe und die geschichtliche Welt, Idee und Gestalt, Individuum und Kosmos, Kants Leben und Lehre, Philosophie der Aufklaerung, Platonische Renaissance, Substanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff, and Thorilds Stellung. The chapters are all clearly labeled in the manuscripts and correspond directly to the published version. For An Essay on Man, The Myth of the State, and Philosophie der symbolischen Formen multiple incomplete drafts exist, with mislabeled sections and chapters, chapters which correspond to no published version, alternative titles, and other inconsistencies. In these instances each chapter title was listed. The drafts are arranged according to their probable order of creation. Cassirer's magnum opus, Das Erkenntnisproblem in der Philosophie und Wissenschaft der neueren Zeit, written between 1902 and 1940 and published in four volumes, consists of more than three and a half feet of research notes and drafts. For Leibniz' System in seinen wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen the collection contains only research notes and drafts for a foreword and a commentary. Geschichte der antiken Philosophie, a philosophy textbook, was co- authored in 1925 by Ernst Hoffmann. Cassirer wrote the first part, Die Philosophie der Griechen von den Anfaengen bis Platon, and Hoffmann wrote the second, entitled Die antike Philosophie von Aristoteles bis zum Ausgang des Altertums. Cassirer's part is represented by a complete draft and some loose pages from the printed version. Cassirer's skill as a translator is evidenced by his work on the third edition of volume IV of Leibniz' Philosophische Werke, entitled Neue Abhandlungen ueber den menschlichen Verstand, a work originally written in French. About 150 printed pages disbound from a second edition copy and pasted onto blank sheets bear Cassirer's emendations between the lines and in the margins. After Cassirer settled in Sweden in 1935, he embarked upon a study of the major philosophers of his adopted country. Two works particularly reflect this endeavor: Thorilds Stellung in der Geistesgeschichte der achtzehnten Jahrhundert and Axel Haegerstroem: Eine Studie zur schwedischen Philosophie der Gegenwart. Thomas Thorild (1759-1808) was a leading voice of the Enlightenment in Sweden, whereas Axel Haegerstroem (1868-1939) advanced the cause of legal and moral philosophy during the the late nineteen and early twentieth centuries. The relations of Queen Christina (1626-89) with Descartes are discussed in Descartes: Lehre--Persoenlichkeit--Wirkung. Series II, Essays and Lectures (Boxes 36-52), is composed of manuscript drafts and research notes for shorter works. Cassirer's scholarly interests encompassed such disciplines as physics, mathematics, philosophy, religion, metaphysics, the social sciences, history, anthropology, the natural sciences, GEN MSS 98 Ernst Cassirer Papers psychology, linguistics, and art. Many of Cassirer's essays and lectures concern the writings of philosophers and literary figures, such as Henri Bergson, Hermann Cohen, Descartes, Galileo, Goethe, Kant, Leibniz, Thomas Mann, and Friedrich Schiller. These shorter works are arranged alphabetically under the individual's name. Some essays and lectures are grouped under a lecture series title, while the remainder are arranged alphabetically by individual folder title. In the case of lectures, the sponsoring institution and the place and time of delivery are provided in brackets, when known. Essay and lecture titles in quotation marks are those provided by the author himself; titles lacking quotation marks are supplied. Series III, Correspondence (Box 53), consists of two parts: Correspondence and Additional Correspondence found in the collection. Correspondence is comprised of thirty-three letters to Ernst and Toni Cassirer from ten correspondents, purchased by the Beinecke Library in 1987. Most folders contain only one or two letters; however, those for Albert Einstein and Albert Schweitzer contain six; and for Friedrich Gundolf eleven. Several letters are addressed to Mrs. Cassirer, e.g. many of those from Einstein, Gundolf, and Schweitzer. Additional Correspondence consists of eleven letters discovered in manuscript drafts or student notes. Cassirer frequently wrote on the clean side of any piece of paper available, thus these letters were incorporated into his papers. Most are routine in nature and concern some aspect of his work, such as lecturing or publishing. Correspondents of note include his father Eduard, his cousin and publisher Bruno Cassirer, and Carson Chang, Chinese historian and philosopher. Only two letters were written by Cassirer. Since most of these letters are found elsewhere in the collection, this subseries consists largely of photocopies. Series IV, Personal Papers (Boxes 54-55), primarily holds college notebooks from Cassirer's student days, particularly of the lectures by Hermann Cohen and Paul Natorp. The series also contains a small amount of miscellaneous material, including Cassirer's calling card and a piece of letterhead stationery from his father's company. Oversize (Boxes 56-57) contains material from Series I, II, and IV. It includes oversize pages from drafts of books, essays, and lectures, newspaper clippings, and a sample manuscript bundle wrapper. A storage box bearing an illustration of the Cassirer family company and an inscription to Eduard Cassirer, Ernst's father, in fond memory of mutual association from his three brothers, dated December 16, 1913. The box was used by Cassirer to store old college notebooks.