Kafkaesque antedated to 1939

[Stephen Goranson]

OED has 1947.
Direction [Darien, Conn.] v. 2 n. 2, March, 1939, p. 21 col. 2, Books, by Henry Hart, in a short review of Odon von Horvath, The Age of the Fish (1939) [confirmed on paper; the hyphen appears in mid-column].

....The discerning reader will will note that the Loeb-Lepold case supplies one of the dominant motifs, and will perceive elements of Kafka in the symbolism, and elements of _The Postman Always Rings Twice_ in the technique. A mysticism, more Catholic than Kafka-esque, mars the telling at the end.

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

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