29 November 1936, Sunday

Drogobych. Bruno Schulz writes a letter to Tadeusz Breza.

Schulz’s letter to Tadeusz Breza, prose writer, essayist and editor of Kurier Poranny*, is melancholic in tone. Schulz begins with a literary passage in which he assures Breza of his vivid friendship, even though they had not been in touch with each other for a long time: “I always think of you with great tenderness and sometimes it is like in one of those dreams when we dream that someone who left for good really long ago has returned and is in our city, and we, by strange sluggishness, by incomprehensible absent-mindedness, have not yet visited them even though this is someone close and dear”1. He later recalls that he has written a review of Adam Grywałd, Breza’s debut novel – the article should appear soon in Tygodnik Ilustrowany*, although Schulz himself has some concerns about the relevance of his essay2: “I’m afraid you won’t like it. The book is extremely difficult to review with a discursive style, to describe adequately with conceptual means”3.

Schulz also tells Breza about his general despondency (“Here, it’s very sad and lonely”4) and his plans to move from Drogobych* to Warsaw* or to Lviv*.

At the end, he returns again – as in letters of 18 November 1935 and 11 May 1936 – to the request that in his absence Breza remember about Józefina Szelińska*, Schulz’s fiancée, who lives alone in Warsaw: “Some time ago, you met with Juna, as she wrote to me, but then these meetings, very pleasant for Juna, somehow stopped – probably it was her fault. She is full of hypochondria and unjust fears”5.

See also: 18 November 1935*, 11 May 1936*, 30 November 1936*, 17 January 1937*, 3 February 1937*. (jo)

  • 1
    Bruno Schulz’s letter to Tadeusz Breza of 29 November 1936, [in:] Bruno Schulz, Dzieła zebrane, volume 5: Księga listów, collected and edited by Jerzy Ficowski, supplemented by Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 58.
  • 2
    The review was indeed published after two months, in Tygodnik Ilustrowany 1937, no 3 (17 January).
  • 3
    Bruno Schulz’s letter to Tadeusz..., [in:] Bruno Schulz, op. cit., p. 58.
  • 4
    Ibidem.
  • 5
    Ibidem, p. 59.
Letter to Tadeusz Breza of 29 November 1936
Letter to Tadeusz Breza of 29 November 1936