The film is now believed to be lost, aside from some fragments. , Letters to Robert Bloch & Others 92ĭer Golem (“The Golem”) was a silent film directed by and starring Paul Wegener with German intertitles released in 1915. I saw a cinema of it in 1923, but never had access to the Meyrink text–although I mentioned it in my article. I wish I could get hold of a copy of the book. You left out the “Golem” illustration mentioned, but I fancy you may send it later. Lovecraft to August Derleth,, Essential Solitude 1.56 In this production the settings were semi-futuristic, some of the ancient gabled houses of Prague’s narrow streets being made to look like sinister old men with peaked hats. The one weird film I did see was “The Golem”, based on a mediaeval ghetto legend of an artificial giant. Lovecraft’s first version of “Supernatural Horror in Literature” was published in 1927…so how did he write about Meyrink’s novel? The book was eventually translated into English by Madge Pemberton, and The Golemwas published in 1928. While not Jewish himself, Meyrink’s close familiarity with Prague, including the Jewish quarter and the occult provided him the ingredients for his greatest novel.ĭer Golem was serialized in the German magazine Die Weißen Blätter from December 1913 to August 1914 it was published as a standalone novel in 1915, to immense popularity. In 1902 he was charged with fraud, which ended his banking career Meyrink turned his focus to writing and translation, and became especially known for his German-language stories of the supernatural. In the 1890s Meyrink developed an interest in the occult, and became a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (and also, briefly, the Theosophical Society). Gustav Meyrink was the pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, an Austrian who had lived in Prague for twenty years as a banker. Lovecraft, “Supernatural Horror in Literature” (1927 version), Both golems and dybbuks are fixed types, and serve as frequent ingredients of later Jewish tradition. The Dybbuk, translated and produce in America in 1925, describes with singular power the possession of a living body by the evil soul of a dead man. The former, wildly popular through the cinema a few years ago, treats of a legendary artificial giant animated by a mediaeval rabbin of Prague according to a certain cryptic formula. The best examples of its literary use so far are the German novel The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink, and the drama The Dybbuk, by the Jewish writer using the pseudonym “Ansky”.

Jewish folklore has preserved much of the terror and mystery of the past, and when more thoroughly studied is likely to exert considerable influence on weird fiction.

Golem by Gustav Meyrink