In His One Languages

The first representative volume in English of Austrian outsider poet Ernst Herbeck (1920-1991) whose writing grappled with the interplay of language and experience, navigating inner turmoil and fragmented identity. Herbeck began writing poems in 1960 at a psychiatric clinic outside Vienna, where, since the end of World War II, he had been undergoing treatment following a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Head clinician Leo Navratil, a promoter of art brut and outsider writing, encouraged Herbeck to write poems in response to short prompts. These poems were subsequently collected into a series of books which became an unexpected sensation among avant-garde Austrian writers and the general public alike. Herbeck's poetry was championed by the likes of Ernst Jandl and W.G. Sebald, for whom it seemed to 'verge on the frontiers of a breathless, other world.' This edition collects poems from every period of Herbeck's career, introducing English-language audiences to the work of this unique artist.