ZWEIGS SAMMLUNG | SAMMLUNG ZWEIG: LITERARY PROVENANCE AND THE STEFAN ZWEIG COLLECTIONS IN BRITAIN

ABSTRACT Libraries and archives increasingly have to face questions concerning the origins and transmission paths of their holdings. Based on acquisition records as well as private and institutional correspondence, this article traces the history of book and autograph collections formerly owned by Austrian writer and collector Stefan Zweig which are held in Britain today or were held there temporarily in the past. Investigating the provenance of these holdings not only contributes to meeting the demand for more transparency; the history of the Stefan Zweig collections within the different institutions also shows how migration and war affected material politics and awareness in libraries and archives after 1945. What was collected and handed down where? What were the collection policies and research interests these institutions had at the time and how have these changed, along with the institutions themselves and their sponsors, and what impact has this had on the Zweig collections themselves? Finally, investigating these collections’ translocations further substantiates the complex interconnectedness of private collectors, institutional acquisition policies, the commercial book trade, and literary research interests in the twentieth century.