Editing Franz Kafka (section)

==== Max Brod ====
[[File:Kafka Der Prozess 1925.jpg|thumb|upright|First edition of {{lang|de|[[The Trial|Der Prozess]]}}, 1925|alt=A simple book cover in green displays the name of the author and the book]]

At the time of his death, Kafka's works were probably known only to a small circle of Czech and German writers.{{sfn|Ackermann|1950|p=105}} Kafka left his work, both published and unpublished, to his friend and [[literary executor]] [[Max Brod]] with explicit instructions that it should be destroyed on Kafka's death; Kafka wrote: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me{{nbsp}}... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread."{{sfn|Kafka|1988|loc = publisher's notes}}{{sfn|McCarthy|2009}} Brod ignored this request and published the novels and collected works between 1925 and 1935. Brod defended his action by claiming that he had told Kafka, "I shall not carry out your wishes", and that "Franz should have appointed another executor if he had been absolutely determined that his instructions should stand".<ref>Diamant, Kathi, ''Kafka's Last Love: The Mystery of Dora Diamant'', p. 132.</ref>

Brod took many of Kafka's papers, which remain unpublished, with him in suitcases to Palestine when he fled there in 1939.{{sfn|Butler|2011|pp=3–8}} Kafka's last lover, [[Dora Diamant]] (later, Dymant-Lask), also ignored his wishes, secretly keeping 20{{nbsp}}notebooks and 35{{nbsp}}letters. These were confiscated by the [[Gestapo]] in 1933, but scholars continue to search for them.{{sfn|Kafka Project SDSU|2012}}

As Brod published the bulk of the writings in his possession,{{sfn|Contijoch|2000}} Kafka's work began to attract wider attention and critical acclaim. Brod found it difficult to arrange Kafka's notebooks in chronological order. One problem was that Kafka often began writing in different parts of the book; sometimes in the middle, sometimes working backwards from the end.{{sfn|Kafka|2009|p= xxvii}}{{sfn|Diamant|2003|p=144}} Brod finished many of Kafka's incomplete works for publication. For example, Kafka left {{lang|de|Der Process}} with unnumbered and incomplete chapters and {{lang|de|Das Schloss}} with incomplete sentences and ambiguous content;{{sfn|Diamant|2003|p=144}} Brod rearranged chapters, copy-edited the text, and changed the punctuation. {{lang|de|Der Process}} appeared in 1925 in {{lang|de|Verlag Die Schmiede}}. Kurt Wolff published two other novels, {{lang|de|Das Schloss}} in 1926 and ''Amerika'' in 1927. In 1931, Brod edited a collection of prose and unpublished stories as ''[[The Great Wall of China (collection)|The Great Wall of China]]'', including the titular short story [[The Great Wall of China (short story)|<!--Per [[WP:OFTHESAMENAME-->"The Great Wall of China"]]. The book appeared in the [[Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag]]. Brod's sets are usually called the "Definitive Editions".{{sfn|Classe|2000|p=749}}