Ernest Lens Collection

This collection concerns Sechs Aerzte sprechen ueber Leben und Tod (Six Doctors Discuss Life and Death), a manuscript of over 600 pages written by Ernest Lens under the nom de plume Mme. Po-Jo Syn Luke. Lens hoped that it would popularize the ideas of Austrian inventor and philosopher Josef Popper-Lynkeus. The author was a friend and adherent of Popper-Lynkeus.

The manuscript is a fictional summary of six doctors' wide-ranging philosophical discussions about the United States. Set during their vacations in 1942-1943, the work addresses Popper-Lykeus' themes of tolerance, the individual and his valuation, social reform, and military service. Individual chapters and sections are cast as short stories, essays, parables, poems, and other forms. Transcripts of newspaper articles and extensive quotations are also included.

This collection contains a typescript, bound in 11 volumes, of Sechs Aerzte sprechen ueber Leben und Tod. It also includes a typescript epilogue, in both German and English, that is not found in the bound volumes. Four additional folders of loose annotated typescript pages are also included.

Loose items removed from MS 833, the bound typescript of this work cataloged separately, are also found in the collection. The Materials about "Sechs Aerzte" folder includes a description of the book and information about the author Po-Jo Syn Luke and a letter from Siegfried Pirker discussing the manuscript, as well as a summary and excerpts in English.

Also included are materials by and about Popper-Lynkeus, primarily essays (including a biographical essay by Henry Wachtel) and articles, some correspondence between Lens and the United States, Austrian, and German copyright offices concerning Popper-Lynkeus copyrights, and some miscellaneous items, such as a photograph of the Popper-Lynkeus memorial in Vienna, and an essay by Lens entitled "Save the Jewish Youth of Europe."