Stefan Zweig (1881 – 1942) was a successful author a collector of literary manuscripts.
He managed to amass an eclectic range of texts that reflect his keen interest in the diversity of European literature, a collection of several hundred autograph texts by the authors he most admired.
This trove includes rough drafts of famous or unpublished works, preparatory notes, personal letters, even manuscripts meant for the printers, from Renaissance writers up to his contemporaries.
Forced into exile in 1934, Zweig chose to part with his collection and turned to the Viennese bookseller Heinrich Hinterberger, with whom he organized the sale of the manuscripts from London.
The greater part of the collection was acquired by the Swiss bibliophile Martin Bodmer (1899 – 1971) The characteristic unity of the Zweig collection was thus largely preserved.
The exhibition (De Stefan Zweig à Martin Bodmer) offers the opportunity to see some of the finest pages of the world’s literary heritage.