Lviv. In the journal Chwila, with the annotation “From the novel [sic!] The Cinnamon Shops”, the first part of the titular short story by Bruno Schulz is published.
The publication is a few days ahead of the market launch of Schulz’s debut book, bearing the same title as the short story. The note below the text reads: “In the coming days, a novel [sic!] by Bruno Schulz from Drohobych, entitled The Cinnamon Shops*, will be published in Rój. Bruno Schulz, whose paintings aroused great interest a few years ago, also turned out to be an original, mature writing talent. In the literary spheres of Warsaw, they consider this novel the most interesting phenomenon of the literary season. With the author’s permission, we present to you an excerpt from this novel”. Below the text, there are the initials P.R., which do not indicate any of the authors cooperating with the Lviv daily at the time.
It is difficult to finally decide whether the author himself was behind the publication of the story in Chwila (as indicated by phrasing that it is published with his “permission”) or whether it was rather the publisher Marian Kister*, who tried in various ways to pave the way of Schulz’s debut book to the reader. The first hypothesis is supported by the fact that the editors of Chwila were keenly interested in Schulz’s work and the writer himself, too, who – although there is no evidence – must have maintained some close contacts with them. By 1933, the daily had published at least ten reviews and mentions of his artistic work. The openly Zion-oriented editorial board probably wanted to promote an artist of Jewish origin. In the following years, this interest continued and even increased to a degree. By September 1939, the daily had published about twenty smaller and larger articles devoted to Schulz (of authors such as Wanda Kragen, Stanisław Jerzy Lec and Artur Sandauer).
In the following days, next two parts of The Cinnamon Shops were published in Chwila.
See also: December 8, 1933, December 9, 1933 (sr) (transl. mw)
