J.S. Bach

First German edition, in part original, of this work devoted to one of Albert Schweitzer's intellectual guides, Johann Sebastian Bach, which he began in 1903 at the age of 28, at the suggestion of the preface's author, his organ professor Charles-Marie Widor. The first edition was published in 1905 in French with 455 pages. The First German edition, recognized by several scholars as constituting an entirely new work, considerably different from the previous edition, appeared in 1908 with 844 pages.

Copy enriched with a precious ink inscription to Adèle Herrenschmidt, on the verso of the first portrait of Bach, by Albert Schweitzer: "to A. H. / In memory of Grimmi and Celerina / Albert." (our own translation)

Contemporary German Bradel binding in half white vellum, smooth spine, title in pen, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved. Fine condition.

A 5 cm tear slightly affecting the text on p. 713, a small fold to the lower right corner of p. 715, a few other minor marginal tears.

Illustrated edition with a portrait of the composer as frontispiece, a second portrait, and three further plates within the text.

Autograph annotations by Albert Schweitzer in ink in the upper margins appear on pp. 5, 51, 398, 467, 673, 683, 699, 745, and 763:

• P. 5: "Pag. 4–50: Grimmialp – August 1906"
• P. 51: "Pag. 50–80. Baden (Switzerland): September 1906"
• P. 398: "Pag. 398–449: Günsbach: Sept. October 1907"
• P. 467: "Pag. 466–510: ?bleu [illegible] und Celerina. 20 August 1907 – Sept."
• P. 673: "Celerina. August 1907"
• P. 683: "Celerina. August 1907"
• P. 699: "Günsbach: August 1907"
• P. 745: "S. 744–762 Celerina Sept. 07"
• P. 763: "763 ff. Günsbach 08" (our own translation)

"[…] Dr Albert Schweitzer, a man of 30, tall and powerfully built, fair-haired and cheerful, who is a pastor, principal of the Seminary of St Thomas, and professor at the University of Strasbourg (one of the two or three native Alsatians whom the Germans have consented to admit to the University of Strasbourg); he is, moreover, an excellent organist; he has written books on philosophy and theology; and he has just published in Leipzig, in French, a first-rate book on J. S. Bach (a book that marks a turning point in Bach scholarship). I need hardly tell you that such a man embodies, in Alsace, vis-à-vis the Germans, French culture."

Extract from the correspondence between Romain Rolland, Sofia Bertolini Guerrieri-Gonzaga and Marie Romain Rolland, circa 1905, published in 1959 in "Chère Sofia: 1901-1908".

(our own translation)

Before devoting his life to the service of others as a pioneer of humanitarian medicine — a commitment that would earn him the Nobel Peace Prize — Albert Schweitzer spent a large part of his early years in an academic and scholarly environment. It was in this context, from 1906 onwards, that he undertook his German biography of Bach, which he wished, as he wrote in a 1905 letter to his future wife Hélène Bresslau, to make "more intellectual and spiritual" than the first version he wrote in French:

"In several respects, the German Bach will be a completely new book. The historical sections of the beginning, which bothered a certain professor's daughter, will be cut, and the chapters on the conclusion, as well as the principles for the performance of Bach's work, will receive more extensive treatment, according to their importance."

Writing this work took a considerable toll on the author's health. In their correspondence, Miss Bresslau frequently enquires on this subject, particularly about the pain Albert Schweitzer experienced in his hand. He reassures her on this point, but also on another minor concern she harboured at the time: the presence of another woman often at his side, thirty-two years his senior:

"Your new friend will not be in London until September 20th. She will come with me to Günsbach to get a good rest instead of going to Paris and Scotland. In London, she will pick up her students. You are mentioned frequently, not without a trace of jealousy. And if you should still be jealous, you might indeed envy her because she spends every day with your friend and writes at the same table with him. And I, who in principle never bring the people I love together, enjoy the thought that you both will meet someday, that you will become acquainted with each other."

Adèle Herrenschmidt, née Le Bel, a teacher and later headmistress of girls' schools, is the much talked about friend to whom Albert Schweitzer was very close in his late twenties, and who stands behind the mysterious initials in this copy. Having met in the 1890s at a wedding in Alsace, the two quickly struck up a friendship and went on to see each other regularly in Paris. Just as Schweitzer had lamented, while writing the present work, that he had too little information about J. S. Bach's personal life, his biographer James Brabazon would later make a similar observation about Schweitzer himself. Albert Schweitzer was a highly private man, to the point of mentioning Adèle Herrenschmidt only once in his autobiography. Yet this man of many vocations wrote quite another thing in his letters:

"But, you know women have more strength and are more naturally in tune with life than men. I am sure that no friendship with a man would have helped me, would have taught me as much as you have, not to forget my aunt and Miss H. (Adèle Herrenschmidt)."

"Albert Schweitzer," James Brabazon, 2022

For this reason, some have speculated that their relationship may have been more than friendship. While this question remains open, it is well established that between 1901 and 1909 they made several extended stays together in Switzerland. Our copy helps corroborate this, as the inscription here refers directly to these excursions: 'To A. H. / In memory of Grimmi and Celerina.' The author also adorned certain passages with a number of surprise annotations pointing back to the holiday destinations where they were written, in Adèle's company:

"Once among the Alps at Oey they took a horse-drawn carriage up the small side valley for two hours or more till the mountains were all around them and they reached the lonely Kurhaus Grimmialp where year after year they had the same table and year after year Schweitzer would say: 'Hier ist wo die Welt zu ist' (This is where we leave the world outside.)"

"Albert Schweitzer", James Brabazon, 2022

Edition, in part original, of a work by Albert Schweitzer devoted to one of his intellectual guides, who would accompany him throughout his long life and even, as Marie-Thérèse Lawen recounts, into the tropical forests of Africa, where he would play airs by the illustrious German composer on a piano that the Bach Society designed for him, made to withstand the local climate.

This presentation copy is particularly valuable as it was once owned by a close friend of Albert Schweitzer, Adèle Herrenschmidt, nicknamed “Tata,” who witnessed the composition process of this biography.