Foreign Rights - Matthes & Seitz

Foreign Rights
Nature Writing
Catalogue
Spring 2015
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Nature writing
Foreign Rights Contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagssgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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Nature Writing / Animal Portrait
Nature Writing / Animal Portrait
Crows. A Portrait
Donkeys. A Portrait
Cord Riechelmann
The family of crows, scientifically named “corvidae” is a relative
young one the history of songbirds. 123 species belong to this
family which also counts species like magpies and jays, its closest
relatives are popinjays. Contrary to them, crows are to be found
everywhere on the planet. The myths which follow them are always
as dark as theirs feathers and are always dealing with evil and death.
Even the increasing number of studies on their outstanding intelligence didn’t succeed in freeing them from their bad reputation. To
the contrary. Alone the fact that crows have a greater capacity to
memorizing than humans is interpreted as a sign for their eeriness.
Cord Riechelmann tells this incredible story mixing history and
nature and introduces twenty crows which he himself observed on
the five continents.
Cord Riechelmann, born in 1960, studied biology and philosophy at the Free University in Berlin. He was a temporary lecturer for
“The Social Behavior of Primates” and “The History of the Research
in Biology”. He also worked as a journalist and reporter specializing
in cities and their nature for the Berliner Seiten and Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung. He lives as journalist and writer in Berlin.
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Jutta Person
Stubborn, dumb, wayord and horny–the features that are attributed to donkeys are not quite flattering. Yet still, almost no animal
plays such a prominent role in cultural history. Jutta Person tells
the astonishing story of this fascinatign beast of burden and undertakes a characterology of donkeys. She meets donkey breeders
and portraits domesticated and wild jackass types. Last but not
least she shows us how smart these allegedly dumb animals with
pretty eyes are–and how much we can learn from them.
Flexible cover
Small Octavo size
Thread stitched
Coloured top edge
155 pages with many illustrations
Flexible cover
Small Octavo size
Thread stitched
Coloured top edge
160 pages with many illustrations
40 000 copies sold
30 000 copies sold
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Jutta Person was born in 1971 and works as a journalist in
Berlin. She studied German and Italian Literature and Philosoph
in Cologne and Italy. She now writes for the Süddeutsche Zeitung,
Literaturen, Die Zeit and the Philosophie Magazin.
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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Nature Writing / Animal Portrait
Nature Writing / Animal Portrait
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Herrings. A Portrait
Pigs. A Portrait
Holger Teschke
Thomas Macho
As „Silver of the Sea‹ this fish has been traded against gold and
fur in medieval times. Not only wealth but whole empires were
found on this “King of fishes“. Was herrings absent those empires
went down. This fish, which could also cause wars, has been celebrated in paintings and novels, plays and poems – not even
modern science could reveal all his secrets. Holger Teschke, who
has worked as a fisherman and can tell stories about his own experience with catching herrings, tells the natural and cultural history
of this shimmering and endangered animal.
No other animal is more eaten than the pig. And the poor animal
is also daily abused in the language - as an expression for unearned
luck and for the lack of manners, as an insult for one‘s contemporaries and capitalists. One refers to the pig as a metaphor for omnivores and as a symbol for religious impurity, sexual lust, an unusual
thriftiness and an outrageous stupidity. According to recent studies
the pig is also physiologically close to us and the transplantation
of pighearts in human chests are to be soon awaited. No wonder
that humans try to distance themselves from their favorite animal
through this serie of tabus and prejudices. The scientist Thomas
Macho follows the destiny of pigs starting with the early domestication and going through its later role as livestock number 1. His
book is a plea against the longing for clealiness, a portrait of new
and old races and also the proof that pigs are every bit as complex
and contradictory as human beings.
Holger Teschke, born in 1958, visited as engineer numerous
fisheries on the coast before studying drama in Berlin where he
worked as dramatic advisor and writer. Between 2000 and 2010 he
traveled in the USA, in Australia and South Asia as a stage director.
Since 2010 he teaches the history of theater and dramaturgy. He
writes for Theater der Zeit and Deutschland Radio Kultur and lives
in Berlin and South Hadley, Massachusetts.
Flexible cover
Small Octavo size
Thread stitched
Coloured top edge
119 pages with many illustrations
Flexible cover
Small Octavo size
Thread stitched
Coloured top edge
160 pages with many illustrations
10 200 copies sold
First Printing: 15 000
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Thomas Macho was born in 1952 in Vienna (Austria). He is a
professor for cultural history at the Humboldt University in Berlin
and the author of numerous monographies.
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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Nature Writing / Abecedary
Nature Writing / Abecedary
alking Flowers. The Alphabet of
T
Plant Language
Cactuses
Judith zander
Isabel Kranz
Instrument of torture and water tank, dust collector for the
lower middle-class and flourishing rarity, the cactus is one of the
favorite house plants in Europe. Judith Zander makes the portrait
of 26 species of this unusual plant, from the star plant (Astrophytum asterias) to the tree sized Carnegiea gigantean. Through
poetical and botanical investigations she composes an eloquent
choir of cactuses and interweaves natural facts with dark legends
and brilliant observations. She examines not only the thorny
aspects of cactuses but also the complex relation of nature and
culture.
Judith Zander, born in 1980, studied German and English literature at the university of Greifswald and later poetry and prose
at the literary institute of Leipzig. For her novel Dinge, die wir
heute sagten she received in 2010 the 3-sat-award of the IngeborgBachmann-competition and the Uwe Johnson Award in 2011. She
lives and works in Berlin.
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Flexible cover
Small Quarto size
Thread stitched
Coloured top edge
143 pages with many illustrations
Flexible cover
Small Quarto size
Thread stitched
Coloured top edge
172 pages with many illustrations
Rights available
Rights available
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Of course flowers can‘t talk but they do tell stories about their
appearance, their discoverer, their healing or toxic features or
about how they came into this world. However, they don‘t deliver
this knowledge directly. You have to take a closer look at their
names, read between the lines of canonical literature and art. In
Isabel Kranz‘s picture-wordbook the tradition of the Language
of Flowers lives on: it accredits some blommos with symbolic
powerand lays down the rules how flowers should function as
secret tokens for love notes. Kranz isn‘t only focussing on the
erotic aspects of flowers. In her illuminating essays she interprets classic novels as well as a reknown Kevin Spacey movie,
a sketch by Monty Python, botanical tractates from 1800 or the
latest bestselling romantic novels. Historical references reveal
the hitherto unknown beauty of botanical description language.
Isabel Kranz, born 1977 in Berlin, is a literary scholar. Her
research areas are the relation of literature and botany, the theory
of the detail and Walter Benjamin.
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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Nature Writing / Book of pictures
Nature Writing / Book of pictures
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Apples and Pears
Colors and Materials
Korbinian Aigner
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge
With almost 800 water-colored paintings depicts Korbinian Aigner apples of the whole world. His plates show
in their original size small, big, striped, spotted, round,
pointed, flat, green, yellow, red, shining, pale, crooked,
smooth or wrinkled apples. Because of their exactitude
and their systematic Aigner’s work is still today considered as the basic for the lexicon of apples. The systematical recording of this one field of the world – nature
– is always the attempt to create order and structure in
it. Due to their almost overwhelming abundance these
images of apples and pears are offering a splendid invitation to observe and contemplate the everyday nature
which surrounds us. No apple is similar to one another,
each possesses its own character and its own beauty. “If I
would know that the world ends tomorrow, I would plant
today an apple tree” said Martin Luther. The Bavarian
priest Korbinian Aigner did exactly that.
The Runge images are the earliest examples of paper
chromatography which still today used in chemistry
classes. Runge examined the reactions of colors in
contact with chemical substances like ammonia, iron
oxide and copper oxide. The results of such experiments
are fascinating explosions of colors which he presented
as sample books under the title Der Bildungstrieb der
Stoffe. These experiments were mainly conducted out of
scientific interest but also show an aesthetic will which
anticipates the avant-garde of the 20th century.
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge, born in 1794 in Hamburg,
did from 1810 to 1816 an apprenticeship in a pharmacy
in Lübeck bevor studying medicine and chemistry in
Berlin, Göttingen and Jena. He wrote his dissertation on
the scientific signification of indigo. From 1822 onward
he worked as a professor for technology in Breslau. In
1832 he started working as a chemist for the industry, a
career he pursued until his death in 1867. Since 1994 an
award for unconventional promotion of art carries his
name.
Folio size
Thread stitched
114 pages
Rights available
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Folio size
Thread stitched
Coloured top edge
512 pages
The priest and religion teacher Korbinian Aigner, born
in 1885, taught the scriptures from 1912 onward at the
Knaben-Seminar Scheyern. As opponent to the Nazi
regime he was during the third Reich denounced and put
in jail. In the concentration camp of Dachau he planted
between the shacks apple trees. Aigner gave them to the
numerous sorts of trees the names of the shacks KZ-1,
KZ-2, KZ-3 and KZ-4. He survived the camps, remained
pastor and dedicated himself until his death to the art
of fruit growing and the paintings of apples. The variety
KZ-3 took the name of Korbinian apple when he died.
Rights available
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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Nature Writing
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The Discovery of Nature
Jürgen Goldstein
Flexible cover
Large Quarto
thread stitched
coloured top edge
320 pages with many coloured
images
Rights available
English and Russian
sample translation
available
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
The Discovery of Nature is a track
record, which dates back to the 14th
century. Jürgen Goldstein paints a
colorful panorama in 16 chapters:
starting with Petrarcas Mont-Ventouxadventure, he goes on and follows Georg
Forster during his Tahiti trip, stays with
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg at his
crossing to Helgoland and finally tells
the story of Reinhold Messner‘s ascent
of Mount Everest. On the basis of eight
ascents and 8 crossings of horizon by ship
Goldstein exposes a development curve,
which goes from the timid pleasure of
looking, via the spectacular nature adventures through to nowadays weariness
of watching. Jürgen Goldstein spins a
dense, almost literary novella from the
historical reports. By letting such brilliant writers like Goethe, Darwin, Claude
Lévi-Strauss and Peter Handke speak for
themselves, he manages to rehabilitate
the story as a form of knowledge. What
unites these travel diaries, letters, notes
and stories is their love for the world.
Jürgen Goldstein, born 1962, is a full
professor for Philosophy at the University Koblenz-Landau. Inspired by Hans
Blumenberg his studies explore the
genesis and the profil of the modern age.
His books deal with the emergence of
modern subjectivity and rationlity, the
political philosophy of 20th century and
the history of nature perception.
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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Nature Writing / Biology / Taxonomy
Nature Writing / Popular Nonfiction
Naming species :
an interplay between nature and culture
Will the animal world change into
a global laboratory?
The Art of Naming
The Internet of Animals
Michael Ohl
Alexander Pschera
In the midst of World War II, Hitler fought a very personal fight:
the battle for the shrew mouse. The biologists, who have dared to
give another name to the mistakenly called „mouse“ were sent to
the eastern front. Contrary to taxonomy‘s elaborate classification
the choice of name is subject to the discoverer‘s decision. This is
why most names os species are accordingly artful or controversial.
How is that compatible with science‘s demand for accuracy? This
book is a vivid journey through natural history, museums and the
wild, taking the reader along into a peculiar and fascinating world,
which has evolved from folksy trivial names to Linné‘s systematisation. Michael Ohl tells the stories of reckless adventurers and
hoarding nerds. He also explains why the groundhog is everything
but a pig and why the „diva of horse flies“ with its golden backside
goes by the name of Beyoncé.
From snails to white shark; thousands of animals worldwide
are getting equipped with transmitters by researchers to controll
their movements via satellites and computers. Every animal has
their own facebook profile, where the outcomes can be seen. What
sounds like science-fiction is already reality. Research institutions
worldwide, like the Max-Planck-Institute, are working at full speed
to create a gapless digital capture of these creatures, tomake their
features and qualities available to humans. In the future we will
not only be warned oftsunamis by water snakes and for volcanic
eruptions by mountain goats – the internet of animals will radically
change our relation to nature. Will the vagabonding nature adventure change to a quick view at the smartphone? Do animals need
a data protection law to protect them from poachers? Against all
cultural pessismism, Alexander Pschera sees an opportunity for a
new dialogue between humans and nature in the inernet of animals.
Michael Ohl, born 1964, is a biologist at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (Natural History Museum of Berlin) and an associate
professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin.
Nonfiction
Hardcover: 317 pages
Sample
translation
available soon
Rights available
Nonfiction
Hardcover: 180 pages
Rights sold to UK and
USA (New Vessel Press)
Alexander Pschera, born 1964, studied German, Music and Philosophy in Heidelberg, and translated Léon Bloy from the French
among others. Pschera lives in Southern Germany and is CEO of
an advertising agency. His latest works include: 800 Millions, an
essay on social media, Dataism, a philosophical theory of big data
and Floating. Romanticism in the Digital Age.
“A unique book, which turns against the common understanding that nature an »A unique book, which turns
against the common understanding that nature and technology have to be isolated from one another.“
Johan Dehoust, KulturSpiegel
“The Internet of Animalsis one of the most interesting books I read in the last years. “
Christian Schiffer, Bayerischer Rundfunk
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 /D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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Nature Writing / Fiction
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Franz Hessel Prize 2014
Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2014
By a River
Esther Kinsky
Novel
Hardcover: 350 pages
Rights sold to Poland
(Biuro Literackie)
sample
translation
available
Esther Kinsky, the mistress of undertones, has written a wonderfully nostalgic and sanguine novel about the rivers she lived by. Her
novel is not only about the River Rhine and the Lea River but also
the story of her struggling, finding confidence, looking for life‘s
beauty. She explores the old industrial factories at the Rhine riverside, the Jewish life behind London East End, the people living and
working at rivers. This is how water becomes an essential metaphor
for her own life. It is a novel about life itself. A novel, so profound,
that you can read it again and again and if you manage to read
between the lines you will get rewarded with a new novel each time.
Esther Kinsky grew up at the River Rhine and lived in London
for twelve years. She is the author of three volumes of poetry and
two novels (Summer Resort and Banatsko) and has translated many
notable English (Henry David Thoreau, Iain Sinclair) and Polish
(Joanna Bator, Olga Tokarczuk) authors into German.
“Esther Kinsky‘s novel outshines everything that has recently been published in the German language with patient
stamina. It is full of culture without being erudite, it is full of knowledge without being smart-aleck. By a River is a
democratic book, witty, wise and of touching beauty [...]“
Katharina Teutsch, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“This book is a sensation of language, with its precise description of present ages, which end in the middle of a
sentence, as if been accelerated by a DJ, which jump back to memories or follow the traces of a myth and all of a
sudden turn into burlesque scenes.“
Susanne Mayer, Die Zeit
“No matter whether Kinsky describes things, foreign people or landscapes: the surplus love, she has at her disposal,
becomes visible in the sensitive prose in which she sees the world.“
Hans-Peter Kunisch, Süddeutsche Zeitung
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 /D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB
mbH // Göhrener
Göhrener Str.
Str. 77 /D-10437
/ D-10437Berlin
Berlin//Germany
Germany
MSBMatthes
Matthes&&Seitz
SeitzBerlin
BerlinVerlagssgesellschaft
Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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Nature Writing / Journal
Years of wander
Jürgen von der Wense
The texts of this book, a collection of
letters, journals and fragments written
by Jürgen von der Wense andbpublished here for the first time, are hymnlike descriptions of the soul and of
landscapes which images are leaving
in the reader the impression of a Dionysian dream. The poet, musician and
rambler Jürgen von der Wense reveals
himself in this book as an empathic
observer. He describes the landscapes
and places with a sensitive exactitude
without snatching their secrets and
magic away. The reader discovers with
fascination a concrete philosophy of
nature and in Jürgen a Novalis of the
20th century.
Hardcover: 602 pages with many
illustrations
Rights available
Contact details
Verlag Matthes & Seitz Berlin
Mr. Richard Stoiber
Email: r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Tel.: +49 (0)30 64319982
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Foreign Rights Contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
Foreign Rights contact: Mr. Richard Stoiber / r.stoiber[at]matthes-seitz-berlin.de / T +49 (0)30 64319982
MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagssgesellschaft mbH / Göhrener Str. 7 / D-10437 Berlin / Germany
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de
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