July 20 [1938], Wednesday

(A) Warsaw. Wilhelm Korabiowski replies to Letter from Bruno Schulz.

(B) Kazimiera Rychterówna writes a letter to Bruno Schulz.

(A) Korabiowski’s answer* indicates that the unpreserved letter of Schulz must have been about a meeting and a conversation about his literary work. Korabiowski – a critic, journalist, satirist, actor – worked on the preparation of a “critical study about Shops* and Sanatorium*”1, which he intended to deliver first in the form of a reading at the Polish Literary Union in Lviv, and then print it in Pion* or Tygodnik Ilustrowany*2. In the letter, he laments that they were unable to meet during Schulz’s recent stay in Warsaw and have a conversation. “Conversation”, as he writes, “of a heavily indebted debtor [...] with a very expensive creditor”3. He assures Schulz of “great gratitude for the moments of delight and revelation”4, which he owes to his books. He only has trouble getting a copy of Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. Yet another reader is waiting for a book borrowed from Romana Halpern*. So he asks Schulz to send the promised copy “even for a period of a month”5. (sr) (transl. mw)

(B) He convinces Schulz to go to Paris and provides valuable tips on Paris contacts.

See also: June 18, 1938, July 23 [1938]. (bt) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    Letter from Wilhelm Korabiowski to Bruno Schulz dated July 20, 1938, [in:] Bruno Schulz, Dzieła zebrane, volume 5: Księga listów, zebrał i przygotował do druku Jerzy Ficowski, uzupełnił Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 287.
  • 2
    It is not known whether Korabiowski completed this “critical study”. It has not been established whether the reading he mentioned was delivered. Nothing is known about the magazine publication either. Cf. Bruno Schulz w oczach współczesnych. Antologia tekstów krytycznych z lat 1920–1939, redakcja i wstęp Piotr Sitkiewicz, Gdańsk 2021.
  • 3
    Letter from Wilhelm Korabiowski to Bruno Schulz dated July 20, 1938, p. 287.
  • 4
    Ibid.
  • 5
    Ibid.