DRESDEN, May 9th, 1869
Dear Mr. P. F. Siebold:
I HAVE to ask your pardon for much. First, I must ask you to pardon the state in which I return your manuscript; in destroying some of my useless rough drafts I unfortunately happened to tear your preface in two and only discovered afterward what had happened. My delay in answering your greatly esteemed notes is due to the fact that I have been waiting for answers to certain inquiries I have had made in Leipsic. According to information that I have now received, Dr. Helms is not longer connected with the Scandinavian bookstore there. Literary friends have advised me to handle the matter in the following way: you are connected with the Leipz: Illustr: Zeitung; if it were possible for you to get in a biography of me there, I could furnish the necessary portrait. Councillor Hegel would furnish you with the needed material. Such a biography ought only to contain favourable matter; the German critics will surely find enough that is objectionable, later on. I should particularly like, in case you think it helpful, that you would mention what I had to struggle against in the earlier days, and that you would also emphasize the fact that the Cabinet and Storthing, acknowledging the position I hold in Norwegian literature, several years ago unanimously granted me a pension for life, besides providing ample travelling stipends, etc. My dear Mr. Siebold, you must not understand me as wishing this in any way to partake of humbug; that is against my nature; but people assure me those things are necessary. If my name were in that way introduced into Germany it would be far easier to get your translation published. If you would later on send it to me I would take it to Leipzig, have the translation reviewed in some of the periodicals, talk with those concerned, and not yield until the book is published. The preface might then be made considerably shorter, by referring to the biography. If you favor this plan write to me. Henceforth I shall have time at my disposal and will do everything possible to advance an enterprise which is so much to my own interest. I have a belief that “The Pretenders” might also be suitable for translation, and could be performed in German theatres; the content of the play is remarkably well suited to later German conditions; the unification of parts of the country under one head, etc.; and were I first known there, I have no doubt but that I could induce the present theatre manager of Leipsic, Heinrich Laube, to make a beginning. These last plans, however, are for the future. At present I await your answer regarding the biography, and pray you to remember me, as I shall ever remember you, gratefully.
Yours respectfully and obligedly,
HENRIK IBSEN