Abstract

Imagine a poet who wrote down only eleven poems during his lifetime. Though his poetry production was so slim, it became internationally renowned, its author became, despite himself, an important figure for many intellectuals of his time. His full name was Abraham Sonne but his literary production went under the nom de plume of Avraham Ben Yitzhak. He was a myth, almost a fiction character, whose influence has been crucial for other remarkable characters such as Elias Canetti, Hermann Broch, James Joyce, Soma Morgenstern, Arthur Schnitzler, Robert Musil, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Arnold Schönberg: this is the doctor Sonne, a paradoxical man who became a milestone for many thanks to few words and many silences. Canetti said that Sonne was the most important person in his life, that’s why he was portrayed in his books as a savior. The essay aims at providing the biographical sketch of an introverted man gifted with a peculiar charisma, a man who wrote little and unwillingly, notwithstanding he impressed his contemporaries (and the posterity as well) for his erudition, his mind and his epic silences.