Letter from an Unknown Woman

The work first appeared in the 1 January 1922 issue of the Viennese Neuen Freien Presse,[1] before being published in book form as part of the collection Amok: Novellen einer Leidenschaft (Insel Verlag, 1922).

As a teenager the woman had lived with her poor widowed mother in the same building and had fallen totally in love with both the opulent cultured lifestyle of her neighbour and the handsome charming man himself.

Her passion for the writer was not lessened by the flow of attractive women spending the night with him, nor when she had to leave Vienna and moved to Innsbruck when her mother remarried.

[13] Another unofficial adaptation came out in 1943, the Finnish Valkoiset ruusut (White Roses), starring Helena Kara and Tauno Palo and directed by Hannu Leminen.

[8][15][16] In 1992, Letter from an Unknown Woman was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

In 1975, the mono-opera Письмо незнакомки (Letter from an Unknown Woman) was composed by Antonio Spadavecchia (Антонио Спадавеккиа), and staged in the Soviet Union (and later in Russia) in Russian.

In June 2024 a new English language play, adapted by Christopher Hampton and entitled "Visit From An Unknown Woman," premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London.