Sir John Malcolm Sabine Pasley, 5th Baronet, FBA (5 April 1926 – 4 March 2004), also known as Malcolm Pasley, was an eminent British philologist and literary scholar.
Fascinated by Franz Kafka and his works, Pasley rapidly became a leading figure in the editing of his texts. In 1961, charged with collecting Kafka's manuscripts from Zurich Cantonal Bank's vault, he carefully transported them by car from Switzerland to Oxford and deposited them with the Bodleian Library, which became the centre of textual scholarship on Kafka.[6]
Pasley wrote about many German authors, with his initial studies of the German language, Nietzsche in particular, gaining him much fame. Pasley's work in this area was pioneering; his book Germany: A Companion to German Studies, first published in 1972, is still in heavy demand.[4]
Kafka
Pasley is best known for his scholarship of the Kafka writings. He began studying Kafka in the early part of his career and was introduced to Marianne Steiner, Kafka's niece and daughter of his sister Valli, by her son Michael, who was a student at Oxford. Through this friendship Pasley became the key adviser to Kafka's heirs. Pasley regarded Kafka as "a younger brother".[9]
In 1956, Salman Schocken and Max Brod placed Kafka's works in a Swiss bank vault due to concerns surrounding unrest in the Middle East and the safety of the manuscripts, which were with Brod in Tel Aviv. After significant negotiation, Pasley took personal possession of Kafka's works that were in Brod's possession. In 1961, Pasley transported them by car from Switzerland to Oxford. Pasley reflected on the adventure as one that "made his own hair stand on end".[4]
At Oxford, Pasley headed a team of scholars (Gerhard Neumann, Jost Schillemeit,[13] and Jürgen Born) that recompiled the text, removed Max Brod's edits and changes, and began publishing the works in 1982. This team restored the original German text to its full (and in some cases incomplete) state, with special attention paid to the unique Kafka punctuation, considered to be critical to his style.[14]
Criticism of Pasley's work on Kafka
Subsequent to the publication of the Kafka works, Pasley began receiving criticism about the completeness of their German publication. To that end, Stroemfeld Verlag has requested permission to scan the manuscripts to produce a facsimile edition and CD-ROM. Aside from completeness, they cited a concern for the preservation of the works; some were written in pencil, and many were fading and crumbling.
Pasley refused their requests, joined by Marianne Steiner, who in 1998, told The Observer "I cannot forgive them for [the terrible things they had said about Pasley. I do not want them to have anything to do with the manuscripts."
In April 1998, Stroemfeld published a facsimile version of The Trial. This manuscript, being owned by the German government, was accessible to them. In this publication the manuscript and transcription are listed side by side.
Pasley married, in 1965, Virginia née Wait (1937–2011), only daughter of Peter Lothian Killigrew Wait (1908–92), whose maternal grandfather was General Sir Lothian Nicholson.