12 April 1934, Thursday

Drohobych. Bruno Schulz, disturbed by the lack of response from Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, writes another letter to him.

Two weeks after his previous letter, impatient and scared, Schulz writes to Witkiewicz1, informing him about the parcel2 and his anxieties: “I’m afraid I might have offended you with a certain tone of a fantastic buffoonery, which I fell into in my last letter, provoked by a similar colour of yours” 3. Schulz briefly analyses the basis of a potential conflict 4, comparing their literary styles, as he sees a mutual tendency for “aberration towards persiflage, buffoonery, self-mockery”5. Schulz sees Witkacy as his ally, with whom he can be artistically unrestrained – as he did in a letter from two weeks ago. Summing up, he convinces himself that his suspicions are wrong: “Where could I count on understanding, if not with you. No, I don’t think you were angry about it!”6.

Schulz also mentions the planned year’s leave from teaching7, which he would like to spend in Warsaw* and Zakopane*8. At the end, he informs Witkiewicz that he has stocked up on his books (“I am extremely happy about them”).

See also: 29 March 1934, 23 April 1938, 24–28 April 1938*. (ts) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    This is the only letter from Schulz to Witkacy known at present, cf. Bruno Schulz, Księga listów, collected and prepared for printing by Jerzy Ficowski, supplemented by Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 104.
  • 2
    It contained a letter, a manuscript and fourteen graphics. These were probably Schulz’s etchings, mentioned by Wojciech Sztaba among the elements of the Witkacy panopticon (Wojciech Sztaba, Gra ze sztuką. O twórczości Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza, Cracow 1982, p. 273).
  • 3
    Bruno Schulz, Księga listów..., p. 104.
  • 4
    There was, in fact, no conflict. Witkiewicz was very enthusiastic about both The Street of Crocodiles and its author. He did not reply to the letters, probably due to an accumulation of personal problems (see bio*). However, Schulz’s fears were not entirely unfounded – Witkiewicz was known for his tendency to take offence, break off contacts and send (at the end of the acquaintance) the poem Do przyjaciół gówniarzy (as he did, for instance, in a letter to Roman Jasiński of 6 and 10 January 1939).
  • 5
    Bruno Schulz, op. cit., p. 104.
  • 6
    Ibid.
  • 7
    In the following months, Witkiewicz will support Schulz in applying for a paid leave for the 1934/1935 school year, which the author wants to spend on literary work. Despite Witkiewicz’s intercession, Schulz will not be granted leave (see Bruno Schulz, Księga listów..., p. 81; 19 December 1934*).
  • 8
    Which are both the “cities of Witkacy”. Probably in previous letters, Witkiewicz persuaded Schulz to come to Zakopane or Warsaw.