Beschreibung:

Schubert, Franz Extraordinary autograph letter signed ("Schubert[paraph]"), to his close friend Franz von Schober ("Lieber Schober!"), THE COMPOSER'S LAST SURVIVING LETTER, probably 12 November 1828 stating simply that he is ill and has not eaten anything for eleven days, describing how he staggers feebly and unsteadily from chair to bed and back again, informing him that [Dr.] Rinna is treating him, and that when he manages to eat anything he just brings it up again straight away; in the second part of the letter Schubert makes a request to Schober for reading material to help him in his desperate situation, noting that he has read by [James Fenimore] Cooper The Last of the Mohicans, The Spy, The Pilot, and The Pioneers, and pleading with him, should he have anything else by him, to leave it for him at Bogner's coffee-house, drily telling him that his brother, who is conscientiousness itself, will most conscientiously bring it over to him, adding that anything else would do too ...Ich bin krank. Ich habe schon 11 Tage nichts gegessen u. nichts getrunken, u. wandle matt u. schwankend von Sessel zu Bett u. zurück. Rinna behandelt mich. Wenn ich auch was genieße, so muß ich es gleich wieder von mir geben. Sey also so gut, mir in dieser verzweiflungsvollen Lage durch Lecktüre zu Hülfe zu kommen...Von Cooper habe ich gelesen: Den letzten der Mohikaner, den Spion, den Lootsen u. die Ansiedler. Solltest Du vielleicht noch was von ihm haben, so beschwöre ich Dich mir solches bey der Fr. von Bogner im Kaffe[e]h[au]s[e] zu depositiren. Mein Bruder, die Gewissenhaftigkeit selbst, wird solches am gewissenhaftesten mir überbringen. Oder auch etwas Anderes. Dein Freund Schubert[paraph] 2 pages, 8vo (c.19.6 x 12.5cm), fine watermarked paper, integral blank, annotated by the recipient ("Erhalten den 12ten November 1828 Fr.v. Schober[paraph]"), later pencil annotation to upper left-hand corner of first page ("97"), [Vienna, probably 12 November 1828], small hole not affecting text WRITTEN SHORTLY BEFORE THE COMPOSER'S UNTIMELY DEATH AT THE AGE OF 31, THIS LETTER IS ONE OF THE MOST POIGNANT DOCUMENTS BY A MUSICIAN EVER TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION. IT IS UNQUESTIONABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT SCHUBERT LETTER TO BE AUCTIONED IN RECENT TIMES, AND IS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT LETTERS BY ANY COMPOSER REMAINING IN PRIVATE HANDS. The history of music is strewn with the names of composers cut down in their youth or younger years - Purcell, Pergolesi, Mozart, Bellini, to list only a few. But it is perhaps the case of Schubert, who died just two months before his thirty-second birthday, that inspires the most regret for what might have been composed. As Grillparzer's famous epitaph on Schubert's grave monument put it: "The art of music has entombed here a rich treasure but even fairer hopes". But this is not to deny Schubert's staggering achievements in the areas of orchestral music, chamber music, piano music and, of course, the German lied. Indeed, the eleven months preceding the writing of the present letter witnessed the composition of some of Schubert's very greatest works, including the Fantasy in F minor for piano duet, D. 940 (January-April), the sublime three last piano sonatas, in C minor, A, and B flat, D. 958-960 (September), and the great String Quintet in C, D. 956 (September-October), whose by-turns unearthly beautiful and volcanic slow movement drew from Artur Rubinstein and Thomas Mann the desire to die while listening to it. As a period of miraculous creativity, Schubert's last months, particularly, have few equals in the history of music. Much in Schubert's private life remains a mystery, and it is perhaps fitting that the composer's last letter should be addressed to the somewhat ambiguous figure of the sometime actor, lithographer and poet Franz von Schober (1796-1882), one of Schubert's closest friends, and under whose charismatic, perhaps even pernicious, spell the composer had fallen following their acquaintance in 1815. A dabbler in t