Eric Voegelin to Hermann Broch, 11 November 1947

This private letter, presented in a 2007 edited transcription of the handwritten original, records an intellectual debt and renews a personal connection. Writing from Baton Rouge, Voegelin sends Broch an offprint, recalls their earlier correspondence, reports progress on his historical work, and expresses hope for another meeting. Its central significance is the connection Voegelin draws between Broch’s reflections on literary form and his own interpretation of Plato.

Was Sie damals über das Ende des Romans als Kunstform schrieben, hat mich sehr beeindruckt. Ihre Belehrung ist nicht ohne Einfluß auf meine Plato-Studien geblieben.

English translation: What you wrote then about the end of the novel as an art form impressed me greatly. Your instruction has not been without influence on my Plato studies.

The editorial notes identify the enclosure as “Plato’s Egyptian Myth” and the earlier letter as Broch’s of 8 June 1944. Voegelin does not explain the conceptual mechanism of this influence; the passage establishes an acknowledged debt, not a developed argument about literary decline or Platonic myth. He offers the offprint as a modest expression of gratitude for Broch’s Tod des Vergil, making scholarly exchange a form of personal thanks.

The letter then turns from intellectual acknowledgment to the conditions of Voegelin’s own work:

Ich lebe noch immer so ziemlich als Klausner in der Arbeit an der „History“. Aber ich sehe jetzt wenigstens Licht.

English translation: I still live pretty much as a recluse, working on the “History.” But now at least I see light.

The report becomes concrete: the first two volumes, covering antiquity and the Middle Ages, are with the publisher, while Voegelin hopes to finish the third by spring. These are statements of progress and expectation, not confirmation of publication. His closing hope of spending three months in the East the following summer and seeing Broch again returns the letter to friendship. Its value lies in documenting how literary reflection, historical scholarship, and personal gratitude intersected within this exchange.