Paris. Bruno Schulz makes his first contacts.
Before leaving for Paris, Schulz gathered a large list of addresses and obtained recommendations for people who were to help him there in various matters. This list had to take into account his poor knowledge of French, which limited contacts mainly to the milieu of Polish artists. The second group of addresses were German-speaking people. Another problem was Schulz’s shyness and rather limited directness in social relations. Maria Chasin*, who according to the preserved documents seems to be Schulz’s most important guide in Paris, gives him the basic advice: “get rid of stage fright, dress up for Paris as ‘very selbstbewusst’. You cannot be too modest and insecure about yourself, you have to expect people to be interested in you (you also have to ‘know’ how to get them interested)”. Kazimiera Rychterówna* spoke in a similar vein, noting that in the implementation of Schulz’s Paris projects “the greatest obstacle is the lack of nerve, entrepreneurship and aggressiveness, and this type of talent is very much needed for real achievements”.
Chasin, who has extensive knowledge in the multinational artistic and literary milieu of Paris, advises Schulz to call (in German) Aleksandra Pregel, the writer Siegfried Kracauer, a friend of Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht, the sculptor Naum Aronson Szulson and Grégoire Rosenberg (and through him, Alfred Bzowiecki). The list of recommendations provided by Rychterówna is shorter and limited to Polish artists suggested to her by “Leśmianowa” (the painter Zofia Chylińska, Leśmian’s widow). This list includes Jadwiga Żakowa (wife of the late painter Eugeniusz Żak), Moïse Kisling, and Olga Boznańska (“because she gathers a lot of artists”). Rychterówna advises Schulz on a direct form of contact. “Upon arrival (or in the afternoon)”, she writes in the letter, “go to the cafe: Café du Dôme, Boulevard Montparnasse and ask for a table of the Polish society. Go unceremoniously, introduce yourself to those present (usually artists, painters) and find out about everything”.
In addition to this type of strong recommendations, the preserved correspondence includes Parisian leads which Schulz may have followed. Rachela Auerbach* informs him in a letter from 25 July that her fiancé, the Yiddish poet Icyk Manger, has been in Paris for “3 months”. Schulz also knows that Roman Kramsztyk and Marian Hemar are in Paris at that time; he is also to fulfil the request of Dr. Srul Schmer (internist) from Drohobych and his wife Dziunia, who was Schulz’s student at the Blatt* middle school – and to deliver a package to Elio Ganzerlo*.
It is difficult to say to what extent Schulz managed to implement the planned agenda for these Paris meetings. It is even more difficult to define the consequences of the meeting, resulting from the direct contacts made by the writer in the Café du Dôme or in the Boznańska salon (if he ever ended up there at all). It is known that Schulz met in Paris with Jan Brzękowski, Louis Marcoussis and Adolf Basler, but how he got there is impossible to determine.
The bill from L’Hôtel d’Orient shows the entry “4 telephone 1 f 25–5”, which means that Schulz used the hotel telephone four times between 1 and 7 July. Who was he calling? The most likely list of addressees is opened by an unknown person who put Schulz in contact with the owner of the Galerie, André J. Rotgé. Schulz would meet him the next day (or shortly after). Joachim Weingarten may have been this mysterious intermediary. It is possible that, following the recommendation of Chasin, Schulz called Aleksandra Pregel (or Rachela Szalit) “right upon the arrival”, since in a lost letter to his guide (written between 5 and 12 August) he reported on the effect of his attempts to make contact. Perhaps in the first days of his stay in Paris, he used a telephone directory and called Naum Aronson, who knew some of his artwork and who Chasin informed about Schulz’s arrival. Certainly, he tried on the very first day to establish contact – first, unsuccessfully – with Georges Rosenberg, because he was to be his guide around Paris instead of his sister. (sr) (transl. mw)
