23 April 1938, Saturday

Zakopane. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz writes a letter to Bruno Schulz.

In a letter to Schulz, Witkiewicz complains about his bad mental state, caused by the break-up with Czesława Korzeniowska: “I am completely devastated – it is a loss not of a lover but the dearest being in the world”1. Other letters from that period attest to the writer’s existential problems2, as he returns to reflections on the sense of an inner void and suicide. In this difficult time Witkiewicz asks Schulz for consolation: “Write soon and comfort me, not minding that I did not write to you for such a long time. I sent but a card in reply to one of the most beautiful letters (yours) that I have ever received”3. In a postscript he tries to persuade Schulz to write a theatrical version of The Cinnamon Shops, which Witkacy could stage. (ts) (transl. ms)

 

See also: 24–28 April 1938*. 

  • 1
    Bruno Schulz, Dzieła zebrane, volume 5: Księga listów, compiled and edited by Jerzy Ficowski, revised by Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, s. 289 (letter from Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, III 17).
  • 2
    Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Listy do żony (1936–1939), appendix: Jadwiga Witkiewiczowa Wspomnienia o Stanisławie Ignacym Witkiewiczu, edited by Anna Micińska, compiled and annotated by Janusz Degler, Warszawa 2012, pp. 219–231 (letters 1202–1212).
  • 3
    Bruno Schulz, op. cit., p. 289.