[Manuscript] Meinem geliebten Stropp

Essen and Cologne, Germany, 1938-1950 . Hardcover. Half cloth. Paper pastedown on boards. . Very Good. 8vo. 21 by 19 cm. Unpaginated, 87 pages with content, 40 of these with illustrations. Generally the illustrations are humorous, often with playful caricatures, and the majority of illustrations dominate their pages. There are some non-humorous illustrations, including floral still-lifes and scenes from North Africa, where the author traveled. The text parts are divided between poetry, short stories and travelogue diary-like accounts. The album itself is dedicated to Grete Stropp, who was the beloved of Hoenerbach, and much of the verse is a paean to her. It would appear that they were often apart, with intense periods of reunion, especially during the holidays, during the many years covered in this album. As far as we could make out, they were not married during these years, and we don't know what their ultimate fate might have been. There are several photos of Heinz, Grete, Uncle Willi and others, and these help establish the artistic skill of Honerbach, whose caricatures are demonstrably superb likenesses of their subjects, notwithstanding the deliberate exaggerations and distortions. They also give concreteness to the times and the milieu and so aid in our appreciation of the artwork. The prewar illustrations depict idyllic bicycle outings through the Rhenish countryside, lovelorn frustration because of absences -- Grete would appear to have been from Cologne, Heinz from Essen.