11 May 1936, Monday

Drogobych. Bruno Schulz writes a letter to Tadeusz Breza and Zofia Nyczówna.

The first part of Schulz’s letter to his friends is addressed to Tadeusz Breza, a writer, literary critic and editor of Kurier Poranny*. In the introduction, Schulz – as in the last few letters to Breza (13 May and 18 November 1935) – asks about his addressee’s debut novel: “I look forward to the passage. Are you going to publish it with ‘Rój’? I would very much like to have it in full already”2. Then he refers to Breza’s flattering opinion about the novels which he himself recently published3: “The fragments of mine that you have read were written offhandedly once, I looked them up now as some ‘paralipomena’. Your praise is unjustified. The text is rather lousy”4. As for his new literary productions, Schulz recalls “Wiosna” (Spring)* with some disappointment: “I’m not happy with it. I already long for some new style”[5]]. In addition, there is Schulz’s very short and rather hesitant opinion about a fragment of Gombrowicz’s* novel Ferdydurke*, which was published in one of the issues of Tygodnik Ilustrowany*.

The short text addressed to Zofia Nyczówna*, Breza’s fiancée, mainly consists of greetings. Implicitly, Schulz also asks Nyczówna to pay a little more attention to his fiancée, Józefina Szelińska,* who is staying alone in Warsaw in the absence of Schulz. Finally, he adds that Szelińska encourages him to take a summer vacation in Podkowa Leśna near Warsaw.

See also: 29 November 1936*. (jo)

  • 1
    Tadeusz Breza’s debut novel Adam Grywałd was published in 1936 by Ferdinand Hoesick.
  • 2
    Bruno Schulz’s letter to Tadeusz and Zofia Breza of 11 May 1936, [in:] Bruno Schulz, Dzieła zebrane, volume 5: Księga listów, collected and edited by Jerzy Ficowski, supplemented by Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 57.
  • 3
    This refers to stories such as “Dodo”, “Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass”, “Edzio”, “The Old-Age Pensioner” or “Autumn”, which, after the release of The Cinnamon Shops, Schulz published in the press, and, together with several new works, collected in a separate volume Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass in 1937.
  • 4
    Bruno Schulz’s Letter to Tadeusz and Zofia…, [in:] Bruno Schulz, op. cit., p. 57.
  • 5
    Ibidem.