söndag 30 juni 2019

Jan Valtin: Out Of The Night/Ur nattens djup

Jan Valtin´s real name was Richard Krebs, 1905-1951. Sometimes his book has been marketed as a novel, and sometimes (like the 1941 edition) as an autobiography. To this day his book is highly controversial. ”Out Of the Night” contains an incredible amount of accurate information. Names, dates, tasks. Also it is a both deeply shocking and at times highly amusing book. I, Dennis Renfors, get more fascinated and horrified for each reading. According to several of Valtin´s/Krebs´s biographers/critics, some claims in the book are exaggerated, or fantasies. Still remains, his pageturner of a book reflects the brutal time of politics inside and outside the Weimar Republic, a political climate also recently reflected in the great TV epic ”Babylon Berlin”.     
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The life of best-seller writer Valtin/Krebs has been described by among others Ernst von Waldenfels with his book "Der Spion, der aus Deutschland kam", Karin Ney, Michael Rohrwasser, Dieter Nelles, Erik Nørgaard, Lars Borgersrud, Holger Weiss, John V. Fleming and Constance Margain.



OUT OF THE NIGHT
By Jan Valtin
New York, 1940

BOOK ONE
THEY CALLED IT DAWN

I.               ”LUMPENHUND”
II.             SAILOR´S WAY
III.           I STRIKE OUT
IV.            SMUGGLING FOR THE COMINTERN
V.              ”DID YOU EVER KILL A MAN?”
VI.            SCAPEGOATS ON THE BARRICADES
VII.          RED VAGABONDAGE
VIII.        PASSAGE TO CONSPIRACY
IX.            I ATTACK THE PACIFIC
X.              THE ROAD TO LENINGRAD
XI.            COURIER TO THE ORIENT
XII.          FROM SHANGHAI TO SAN QUENTIN


BOOK TWO
THE DANCE OF DARKNESS

XIII.        NEW WEAPONS
XIV.        THE INFALLIBLES
XV.          FIRELEI
XVI.        FIRELEI MAKES HER DECISION
XVII.      BETWEEN THE HAMMER AND THE ANVIL
XVIII.    SOVIET SKIPPER
XIX.        IMPOTENT AND OMNIPOTENT
XX.          THE MAN HUNTERS
XXI.        STALIN OVER THE SEVEN SEAS
XXII.      INSPECTOR-GENERAL FOR ENGLAND
XXIII.    HOW WE ENGINEERED MUTINIES
XXIV.     THE SWASTIKA CASTS ITS SHADOW
XXV.       SCANDINAVIAN INTERLUDE


BOOK THREE
THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES

XXVI.     STORM SIGNALS
XXVII.   IN THE HURRICANE
XXVIII.  DEAD MEN ON FURLOUGH
XXIX.     IN THE LANDS OF TWILIGHT
XXX.       WEST OF THE RHINE
XXXI.     ”DEATH IS EASY”
XXXII.   CAPTURED
XXXIII. THE GESTAPO QUESTIONS ME
XXXIV.  HELL
XXXV.   I SIGN A CONFESSION
XXXVI.  OF COMRADES AND THE HEADSMAN
XXXVII.     MAN-CAGE MAGIC
XXXVIII.   MY BATTLE FOR ”MEIN KAMPF”
XXXIX.  DARK DUEL
XL.           I JOIN THE GESTAPO
XLI.         FREEMAN ON A LEASH
XLII.       ABDUCTED
XLIII.     FLIGHT

WHO´S WHO (Not included in original 1940 edition. Added to 1941 edition.)
COMMENTS 2019

”Out Of The Night” exists in: 

1) the longer original 1940 version, 
2) the abridged 1941 version, on which also all translations are based and 
3) in even more abridged/censored versions, like the UK 1941 version, the Swedish 1942 version ("Ur nattens djup") and the German 1957 version ("Tagebuch der Hölle").
 
Comments can be posted to: dennisskargard@yahoo.se