Resources on George's Correspondence
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The resource below--Correspondence Between George and Hofmannsthal--feature the letters between George and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Biographers, circle members, and even a few contemporaries have noted that George was completely enthralled with Hofmannsthal. His love for the young man was very extreme and it often made Hofmannsthal very uncomfortable. While the two were extremely close, Hofmannsthal became more reluctant to fully embrace George as a master. In their letters, Hofmannsthal mentions having issues with depression and a sense of nervousness; undoubtedly, this precarious mental state was caused by George's overbearing nature, his attempts to get the young man to write for his poetry journal, and ultimately, to concede to viewing George as a master. Nevertheless, in the published letters, there is always a cordial regard between the two of them. They speak highly of each other's poetry. It is in the latter correspondence that Hofmannsthal speaks of his mental illnesses. Robert Norton says of their later letters that "they became increasingly limited to external matters pertaining exclusively to business. Reading them is a little like listening in on two former lovers who have realized that the fires between them have been extinguished, but neither has the courage or the will to be the first to say so" (323). After fourteen years, Hofmannsthal freed himself of George and George revitalized his circle--accepting new young men into it and coming to terms with the fact that Hofmannsthal was not the lover/friend he yearned to have.
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Despite the legacy that George cultivated in his life time, he did not leave behind very many traces of his personal life via letters. He was deliberate in advancing his fame and renown, but he was still an intensely private person. Robert Norton, in his biography of Stefan George, explains that George's "terse epistolary style was in part an expression of the extreme caution he took regarding the details of his private affairs" (510). For those men in his circle who corresponded by letters, he warned them of revealing anything too personal or intimate in a missive. For George himself, this care for reservation and a shrouding of personal life aligned with his objective to come across as deified. Revealing anything innately human or personal would culminate in his image of god/deity/master/spiritual leader being tarnished. George's letters to others indeed lack passion and a more human self-portrayal, but that does not, nonetheless, mean that the letters to George (from his followers) were equally as terse and passion-less. On the contrary, Ernst Glöckner wrote hoards of letters to George and is actually the only companion to leave any surviving account of physical affection/intimacy with his poetic master (Norton 510). Later, members of his circle detailed that George burned personal letters; this makes sense, considering that any document relaying George's own bodily and sexual yearnings would have posited him in the realm of being human--not divine.