{{short description|Short novel by Kathrine Taylor}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{italic title}} {{Infobox book | name = Address Unknown | title_orig = | translator = | image = Address_Unknown_(novel),_cover.png | caption = | author = Kathrine Kressmann Taylor | orig_lang_code = en | country = United States | language = English | genre = Epistolary novel, Historical fiction | publisher = Simon & Schuster | pub_date = 1939 | media_type = Print (hardcover & paperback) | pages = | isbn = <!-- if available --> | oclc = | preceded_by = | followed_by = | native_wikisource = | wikisource = | notes = Originally published in *Story* magazine (1938) }} '''''Address Unknown''''' is a 1938 short novel by Kathrine Taylor. The story, told entirely in letters between two German friends from 1932 to 1934, describes the rise of the Nazi Party and the growing acceptance of what would become the Final Solution in Germany and how the ideology had the power to profoundly change relationships.<ref name=guardian/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/address-unknown|title=Address Unknown|last=Applebaum|first=Adina|date=2021-12-20|publisher=Jewish Book Council|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref><ref name=cword/>
== Plot == Martin returns to Germany from the United States with his family, exhilarated by the advances in the old country since the humiliation of the Great War. His Jewish business partner, Max, remains in the States to keep their art gallery running. Martin raves about the Third Reich and Hitler and at first, Max is covetous, envying his friend's return "to a democratic Germany... and the beginnings of a fine political freedom." He has misgivings, however, after hearing about violence against Jews and their businesses from those who have left Berlin. Martin dismisses his concerns, saying that Jews are the universal scapegoats and that "a few must suffer for the millions to be saved."
Martin asks Max to stop writing to him out of concern that, if a letter were to be intercepted, his family would be endangered. Max ignores this and continues writing. His sister Griselle, an actress, goes missing in Berlin and he becomes frantic to learn her fate; Martin responds that Griselle is dead. He admits turning her away when she came to him for sanctuary while she was being pursued by the Sturmabteilung. It is revealed that he and Griselle had previously been romantically involved. The contents of Max's letters change, now seemingly focused only on business and the weather, but the language he uses falsely implies that he is using a code. He refers to the exact dimension of pictures and to "our grandmother," implying that Martin is also Jewish. Martin responds, begging him to stop writing as he has been interrogated about each letter that arrives. Max again ignores him and eventually has one of his letters returned from Germany, marked "address unknown."
== Publication == ''Story'' published ''Address Unknown'' in 1938. It was released under the name Kressmann Taylor, as the editor Whit Burnett and Taylor's husband Elliott deemed the story "too strong to appear under the name of a woman."<ref name=guardian>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/23/in-praise-of-address-unknown-the-anti-nazi-novel-that-saw-into-the-future|title=Address Unknown: the great, forgotten anti-Nazi book everyone must read|date=2019-08-23|work=The Guardian|last=Freedland|first=Jonathan|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref> She used this name professionally for the rest of her life. The novella's appearance in ''Story'' was so popular that all copies of that month's issue sold out within ten days, and in an anecdote by Burnett, the demand was so high that pirated copies began to circulate in Hollywood.<ref name="burnett intro">{{cite book|last1=Taylor|first1=Kressmann|last2=Burnett|first2=Whit|contribution=Foreword|year=1939|title=Address Unknown|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster, Inc.|quote=Its publication in ''Story'' met with a public reaction rare in the eight-years' history of that literary magazine, for within ten days the entire printing of that issue was sold out. The ensuing demand, which could not be fulfilled, saw the even more unusual phenomenon of some appreciative readers (this was in Hollywood) running off mimeographed copies of the story, at their own expense, for their friends.}}</ref> ''Reader's Digest'' soon reprinted the story and Simon & Schuster published it as a book in 1939,<ref name=phibetakappa>{{cite web|url=https://theamericanscholar.org/dusting-off-a-classic/|title=Dusting off a classic|last=Dreifus|first=Erika|date=2020-12-12|publisher=The American Scholar|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref> selling 50,000 copies.<ref name=glasgow>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/germany/berlin/address-unknown-at-the-tron-glasgow-spkn5bzvrc8|title=Address Unknown at the Tron, Glasgow|last=Scott|first=Robert Dawson|date=2010-05-18|work=The Times|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref> Foreign publications quickly followed, including a Dutch translation, later confiscated by Nazis,<ref name=phibetakappa/> and a German one, published in Moscow.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} The book was banned in Germany.<ref name=phibetakappa/>
The book's afterword, written by Taylor's son, reveals that the idea for the story came from Taylor's experience seeing those returning from Germany turn their backs on their Jewish friends.<ref name=cword>{{cite web|url=https://www.thecwordmag.co.uk/books/address-unknown-by-kathrine-kressmann-taylornbsp|title=Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor|last=Morrison|first=Kennie|date=2021-09-04|publisher=The C Word Mag|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref><ref name=phibetakappa/> In 1995, Story Press reissued ''Address Unknown'' to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps.<ref name=playbill/><ref name=phibetakappa/> The story was subsequently translated into more than 20 languages, with the French version selling 600,000 copies.<ref name=phibetakappa/> The book finally appeared in Germany in 2001 and was reissued in the United Kingdom in 2002. In Israel, the Hebrew edition was a best-seller and was adapted for stage.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} Taylor spent the final year of her life signing copies and giving interviews.<ref name=phibetakappa/> The book was re-issued again in Ecco Press in 2021.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jweekly.com/2021/07/13/looking-back-on-nazi-era-in-newly-reissued-novels-from-1930s/|title=Looking back on Nazi era in newly reissued novels from 1930s|last=Freedman|first=Howard|date=2021-07-13|publisher=JWeekly|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref><ref name=phibetakappa/>
The title of the book is a mistranslation of the German ''Adressat unbekannt''. ''Adressat'' is more equivalent to addressee than address.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}
== Adaptations == The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 1944<ref name=guardian/><ref name=phibetakappa/> and has been performed as a stage play in nearly 100 locations, including in France (2001), Israel (2002 onward),<ref name=playbill/><ref name=theatrelist>{{cite web|url=https://htc.miami.edu/plays/address-unknown/|title=Address Unknown|publisher=Holocaust Theatrer Catalog|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref> at the Promenade Theater in New York City (2004),<ref name=playbill>{{cite web|url=https://playbill.com/article/friendship-poisoned-in-nazi-era-in-off-broadways-address-unknown-with-dale-atherton-com-120243|title=Friendship Poisoned in Nazi Era in Off-Broadway's Address Unknown, With Dale & Atherton|last=Jones|first=Kenneth|date=2004-06-10|publisher=Playbill|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref> Hungary (2008),{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow (2010),<ref name=glasgow/> at the Koninklijke Schouwburg in the Hague (2011),{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} at Soho Theatre in London (2013),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/10159600/Address-Unknown-Soho-Theatre-review.html|last=Cavendish|first=Dominic|date=2013-07-04|title=Address Unknown, Soho Theatre, review|publisher=The Telegraph|access-date=2017-02-05}}</ref><ref name=theatrelist/> at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen (2019){{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}, and at Vienna’s Konzerthaus in September 2025, performed by John Malkovich and August Zirner, mixed with orchestral music by J.S. Bach.<ref>https://konzerthaus.at/konzert/eventid/63224</ref>
It has also been performed in Germany, South Africa,{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} Italy, Turkey, Argentina,<ref name=playbill/> and in various American cities.<ref name=theatrelist/> In 2020, it was performed by Søren Sætter-Lassen and Lars Mikkelsen,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kglteater.dk/en/whats-on/season-20202021/drama/adressaten-ubekendt?section=top|title=Address Unknown|publisher=The Royal Theatre|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref> followed by a debate and discussion on how Denmark acted towards Nazi Germany before the war.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} An adaptation for BBC Radio 4 was broadcast in June 2008 as an Afternoon Play. It starred Henry Goodman as Max and Patrick Malahide as Martin and was adapted and directed by Tim Dee.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c1q5z|title=Address Unknown|publisher=BBC Radio 4|access-date=2023-06-25}}</ref> A dance production was put on by Gabrielle Lansner & Company in New York City in 2003.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/23/arts/in-performance-dance-a-friendship-disintegrates-as-hitler-triumphs.html|title=IN PERFORMANCE: DANCE; A Friendship Disintegrates As Hitler Triumphs|date=2003-01-23|last=Anderson|first=Jack|work=The New York Times|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref>
It was adapted for Australian radio in 1940 starring Peter Finch.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Australasian Radio Relay League. | title=JONATHAN LISTENS TO PLAYS New Ground Broken In Radio Drama | journal=The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal | volume=35| issue=44 (November 2, 1940) | location=Sydney | publisher=Wireless Press | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-720741120 | id=nla.obj-720741120 | access-date=16 March 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == *[http://www.acobas.net/teaching/textbook/address/addressunknown.pdf Complete text of ''Address Unknown'']
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Category:1938 American novels Category:Novels set in the 1930s Category:American novels adapted into films Category:American novels adapted into plays Category:Censored books Category:Books about Nazism Category:Books about friendship