LEDERER, EDUARD "LEDA"

(Pseud.) Archive of preeminent Czech-Jewish novelist, playwright and political activist, consisting of manuscripts, published works and correspondence. Including: Two Autograph Letters Signed by future Czech President Thomas G. Masaryk to Lederer + Typed Letter from Masaryk to Lederer discussing the Bjornson Affair. Czech. * Autograph Letter Signed by Bjornstjerne Bjornson (Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1903) to Lederer concerning persecution of the Slavs by the Hungarians. Written in German. Leda’s Books: * Hrichy Otcu ["Sins of the Fathers": play in 4 acts] Prague: A. Reise, 1912. Disbound. pp. 94, (2). With 4-page typescript addition by Author (to be inserted at bottom p. 92). 8vo. * Pohadky o Pekle, Nebi a Zemi [illustrated children's storybook] Prague: Vaclav Petr, 1923. pp. 69, (3). Multicolor illustrated boards, rebacked. 4to. * Zrádce ["The Traitor": a play vindicating Judas Iscariot]. Playwright's Autograph Manuscript. pp. 45, (3 blank). 4to. * Curicullum Vitae in the hand of Leda and a personal letter in Yiddish signed by "Louise Lederer" (1861). * Eighteen photographs of Lederer with family and colleagues

The Czech-Jewish assimilationist and man of letters Dr. Eduard Lederer (pseud. "Leda") was born in 1859 in Chotoviny. He studied Law at the University of Prague and subsequently practiced in Neuhaus. After the founding of the independent Republic of Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of World War One, Lederer became Consultant for Jewish Culture to the Ministry of Education. and subsequently devoted much of his writing to the Jewish Question. A Czech nationalist to the core, nonetheles, Lederer was deported to Theresienstadt where he perished in 1944. See The Jews of Czechoslovakia: Historical Studies and Surveys, Vol. I (1968) pp. 78, 446; Vol. II (1971) pp. 151-2; EJ, Vol. X, col. 1557.