Brod, Max

Brod, Max (mäx brōd), 1884–1968, Israeli writer and composer, b. Prague. Brod is best known for his historical novels, written in German, notably The Redemption of Tycho Brahe (1916, tr. 1928) and Reubeni, Prince of the Jews (1925, tr. 1928). A lifelong friend of Franz Kafka, he wrote an excellent biography of Kafka (1937, tr. 1947) and also edited Kafka's writings. Brod's numerous other works include a biography of Heine (1934, tr. 1956), an autobiography (1960), and plays, poems, novels, and essays. His musical compositions include works for orchestra, notably Requiem Hebraicum, and for voice and piano. Long an active Zionist, Brod left Prague for Palestine in 1939 where he directed the Habima Theater.

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Brod, Max 

Born May 27, 1884, in Prague; died Dec. 22, 1968, in Tel Aviv. Austrian writer and critic. Born into a Jewish family.

Brod was a lawyer by education. In 1939 he emigrated to Palestine. Brod is the author of the expressionist novels The Redemption of Tycho Brahe (1916) and The Great Risk (1919) and of the dramas Queen Esther (1917) and Lord Byron Goes out of Style (1929). Some of his novels, such as The Jewish Women (1911) and Reubeni, Prince of the Jews (1925), are pervaded by the idea of religious missionary work. The autobiographical novel Rebellious Hearts (1957), the autobiography A Militant Life (1960), and the collections The Starry Sky of Prague: Music and Theater Reminiscences of the Theater of the 20’s (1966) and On the Beauty of Outrageous Pictures: A Guide for Romantics of Our Time (1913, 1967) depict the literary, theatrical, and musical life of Austria, Germany, and Czechoslovakia in the first third of the 20th century. Brod was a friend of F. Kafka and the trustee of his manuscripts; he published his works (1935) and letters (1958) and wrote a monograph about him (1966).

WORKS

Ausgewählte Romane und Novellen, vols. 1-6. Leipzig [1919].
In Russian translation:
“Gugo.” Russkaia mysl’, 1913, nos. 6-9.

REFERENCES

Dichter, Denker, Helfer: Max Brod zum 50. Geburtstag. Published by F. Wetsch. [no place, 1934.]
Schümann, K. M. Brod. … In Im Bannkreis von Gesicht und Wirken. Munich, 1959.

N. B. VESELOVSKAIA