Warsaw. Wanda Kragen writes a letter to Bruno Schulz, describing the echoes of her utterance during the discussion on Ferdydurke.
Kragen* replies to Schulz’s letter, in which he thanked her for her goodwill and enthusiasm, with which she received his talk on Ferdydurke1. Kragen negatively assesses her talk, disagreeing with Schulz, who was impressed with her courage: “why appear present at all, why even take part, why have the courage which you value?”2. Kragen enumerates the annoyances that she suffered: her friends leaving early, the commentary by Rafał Blüth*, whom she values, and a crushing assessment of her talk in the weekly Czas3. Her letter, in a catastrophic tone – “I do not doubt that my talk will return with a vengeance many times”4 – exerts an impression on Schulz, who is not a foreigner to depression and melancholia: “I fear if the whole Ferdydurke affair does not become a psychological trauma for her”5.
At the same time, Kragen sustains her negative opinion about Gombrowicz’s novel, criticising the comparison to Proust6. She recommends to Schulz Stanisław Piasecki’s article7, with which she fully agrees8. In a letter to Romana Halpern Schulz assesses this article unequivocally as “crude and stupid”9.
Wanda Kragen’s letter could erase the positive impression that she exerted on Schulz during her talk in the Polish Writers’ Union*. It is not known whether he ever decided to reply since on 21 February he informed Romana Halpern that he had not responded to the letter yet10. (ts) (transl. ms)
See also: 11 January 1938*, 18 January 1938*.