“I will always be considerably more grateful to you for sending back my manuscripts than for their publication,” wrote Kafka coyly to the publisher Ernst Rowohlt of their plan to bring out a book together. The Prague author submitted a collection of exquisite short stories, and by November 1912, these were gracing the tables of the city’s booksellers under the title Meditation. Kafka immediately sallied forth to collect a few copies for himself: “Eleven books were sold by André. I bought ten of them myself. I would dearly like to know who has the eleventh.” Since then, millions of copies have been bought by enthusiastic readers around the world and the Meditation has long been considered a mature masterpiece, despite the author’s youth. There are many who see Kafka’s debut as the most fascinating thing he ever wrote.
