(A) Chełm, Lublin Voivodeship. In the 3rd issue of the Kamena monthly, the short story Second Autumn by Bruno Schulz is published.
(B) Drohobych. Bruno Schulz, concerned about Zenon Waśniewski’s lack of response to the letter, inquiries about the reasons for his silence and about the fate of the story sent to the editorial office.
(A) The publication began Schulz’s collaboration with Kamena*, to which he was invited by Zenon Waśniewski the very same winter. For a long time, the writer did not live up to his promise to send a “piece of prose”. Originally, it was supposed to be a piece titled Nights of July, but eventually Schulz sent the story to the editors of Sygnały, who published it on October 8. He then rewrote Second Autumn* intended for Kamena from old manuscripts and sent it by registered mail only on September 30; soon afterwards, in another letter, he asked for the editors’ opinion.
When preparing the manuscript for printing, the editors of Kamena did not interfere much with the author’s text. The magazine version of Second Autumn is rather consistent with the manuscript. The differences are slight and mainly concern punctuation. The editor, probably Waśniewski, placed commas in accordance with the stylistic conventions of the time.
Like other stories written in the 1920s and printed in magazines in the 1930s, Second Autumn would be included in the volume Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (1937). (sr) (transl. mw)
(B) In a short letter to Zenon Waśniewski*, a poet, painter and publisher of the literary magazine Kamena, Schulz addresses two issues. First of all, he is disturbed by the fact he had to wait longer than usual for a reply: “Your silence makes me wonder whether or not you might have perhaps got angry with me. Unaware of any harm I might have caused, I am lost guessing the nature of my offence against you”. Secondly, he asks his pen pal about developments with “Druga jesień”, a story that he sent to Waśniewski at the end of September and which should be published around the time in his periodical: “I also heard that my fragment is not in Kamena, while I know from you for a fact that it was already submitted for printing. Is this also in connection with my unconscious offense?”. The letter ends with Schulz’s request for a quick response. (jo) (transl. mw)
See also: 14 September 1934*, 30 September 1934*, 7 November 1934*, August 1973.
