Thomas Mann’s narrative “Der kleine Herr Friedemann” [“Little Herr Friedemann”], written in 1896, appeared in the important literary periodical

in 1897 and was published by Samuel Fischer in 1898 in Mann’s first anthology of short stories collectively entitled

. In a letter to Otto Grautoff of 21 July 1897 the author declared that whilst he had formerly used his diaries as a form of artistic relief, he had now discovered “novelistic discrete forms and masks” [“novellistische, öffentlichkeitsfähige Formen und Masken”] as a means of relaying his inner emotions — a process that had started with “Der kleine Herr Friedemann”. In his later essay “On Myself” (1940), Mann identified in the narrative a motif that was…

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Citation: Gallagher, David. "Der kleine Herr Friedemann". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 October 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11462, accessed 23 November 2024.]