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<div style="font-size: 10pt;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">Thanks!</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">(Yes, I am reading it in German.)</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">Ray</div></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><div id="LGEmailHeader" dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">------ Original message------</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><b>From: </b>Jochen Stremmel<jstremmel@gmail.com></jstremmel@gmail.com></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><b>Date: </b>Mon, Dec 5, 2016 11:14</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><b>To: </b>Ray Easton;</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><
b>Cc: </b>P-list;</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><b>Subject:</b>Re: NP: Hundejahre</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><br></div></div><div dir="ltr">It's no standard German idiom and no invention of Grass – makes sense a bit later in the novel. You are reading the book in German? "Federführend" you could call somebody who is in charge but here it is also somebody who has a pen in his hand, at least metaphorically.<br><br><br></div><div class="gmail_extra" dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote" dir="ltr"><a href="tel:2016-12-05 17">2016-12-05 17</a>:53 GMT+01:00 Ray Easton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:raymond.lee.easton@gmail.com" target="_blank">raymond.lee.easton@gmail.com</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="margin-bottom:45px" dir="ltr"> <div style="font-size:10pt" dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:
0">Near the beginning Grass writes: "Der hier die Feder führt..." Is this a "standard" German idiom for 'the present writer' or is this an invention of Grass.</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Thanks in advance,</div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Ray</div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div>
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