Zakopane. Bruno Schulz’s friend, Władysław Riff, dies of tuberculosis.
At the age of twenty-six, Schulz’s friend, poet and prose writer Władysław Riff dies of tuberculosis in Zakopane. Schulz had corresponded with him since the early 1920s. All materials left by Riff – including manuscripts of his literary works and letters from Schulz – were burnt during the disinfection carried out for sanitary and epidemiological reasons (a routine measure after one died of tuberculosis). For disinfectors working in Riff’s relatives’ absence during his funeral, these papers did not have any value; they were only a source of epidemiological hazard.
According to Jerzy Ficowski, “in their letters, Schulz and Riff devoted little space to daily affairs. It was a long, fragmented discussion about art, and the references to everyday reality were already artistic transpositions, and they had the marks of literary remodelling”. Ficowski supposes that “contact with Riff had a significant impact on Schulz; perhaps it accelerated the maturation of his ‘private mythology’, which was meant to become the foundation and content of his entire work”. In his introduction to Księga listów Ficowski recalls the story of Riff’s friend, the prominent actress Halina Drohocka*, who mentioned in a letter to Ficowski that after a few years after Riff’s death she had asked Schulz about him, but he reacted with great agitation and refused to talk about it. (mr) (transl. mw)
See also July–August 1927*.
