29 March 1934, Thursday

Drohobych. Bruno Schulz sends a letter, a manuscript and fourteen graphics to Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.

Emboldened by the mocking tone of Witkiewicz’s letters*1, he replies in a similar style of a “fantastic buffoonery”, which he a kind of “writing face”2 characteristic of himself and Witkacy. The letter is accompanied by a manuscript and fourteen graphics, as probably in the previous letter Witkiewicz asked for artefacts that could enrich his collection of curiosities3. Although Schulz has fulfilled the request, Witkacy does not reply and acknowledge receipt of the parcel – to the surprise of Schulz, who is afraid that the literary form of his letter, hinging on aberration and self-mockery, could offend Witkiewicz.

See also: 12 April 1934, 23 April 1938, 24–28 April 1938. (ts) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    We can only guess that Schulz’s lost correspondence with Witkacy from March 1934 was full of literary displays in the style of “persiflage, buffoonery, self-mockery”, about which Schulz writes in the only surviving letter to Witkacy.
  • 2
    Bruno Schulz, Księga listów, collected and prepared for printing by Jerzy Ficowski, supplemented by Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 104.
  • 3
    The graphics sent by Schulz are perhaps etchings that Wojciech Sztaba lists among the elements of Witkacy’s panopticon (Wojciech Sztaba, Gra ze sztuką. O twórczości Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza, Cracow 1982, pp. 273).