My Prizes : An Accounting

by BERNHARD, THOMASJANEWAY, CAROL

• ISBN13: 9780307272874
• ISBN10: 0307272877
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-23
• Publisher: Knopf

Summary

A gathering of brilliant and viciously funny recollections from one of the twentieth century's most famous literary enfants terribles. Written in 1980 but published here for the first time, these texts tell the story of the various farces that developed around the literary prizes Thomas Bernhard received in his lifetime. Whether it was the Bremen Literature Prize, the Grillparzer Prize, or the Austrian State Prize, his participation in the acceptance ceremonyalways less than gracious, it must be saidresulted in scandal (only at the awarding of the prize from Austria's Federal Chamber of Commerce did Bernhard feel at home: he received that one, he said, in recognition of the great example he set for shopkeeping apprentices). And the remuneration connected with the prizes presented him with opportunities for adventureof the new-house and luxury-car variety. Here is a portrait of the writer as a prizewinner: laconic, sardonic, and shaking his head with biting amusement at the world and at himself. A revelatory work of dazzling comedy, the pinnacle of Bernhardian art.

Author Biography

Thomas Bernhard was born in Holland in 1931 and grew up in Austria. The winner of the three most distinguished and coveted literary prizes awarded in Germany, he has become one of the most widely translated and admired writers of his generation. His novels published in English include The Loser, Frost, Gargoyles, and Wittgenstein’s Nephew. The five segments of his memoir were published in one volume, Gathering Evidence, in 1985. Bernhard died in 1989.

Table of Contents

Prizes
The Grillparzer Prize	p. 3
The Prize of the Cultural Circle of the Federal Association of German Industry	p. 17
The Literature Prize of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen	p. 29
The Julius Campe Prize	p. 47
The Austrian State Prize for Literature	p. 63
The Anton Wildgans Prize	p. 83
The Franz Theodor Csokor Prize	p. 91
The Literary Prize of the Federal Chamber of Commerce	p. 101
The Georg Büchner Prize	p. 109
Speeches
Speech at the Award Ceremony for the Literature Prize of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen	p. 117
Speech on the Occasion of the Awarding of the Austrian State Prize	p. 121
Speech at the Awarding of the Georg Büchner Prize	p. 123
On My Resignation	p. 127
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