August 3, 1935, Saturday

Zakopane. Bruno Schulz sends a postcard to Zenon Waśniewski, urging him to come to Zakopane.

Schulz receives a letter from Waśniewski1 and in reply informs him that he has been living in the “Pani” guesthouse on Słowacki2 boulevards in Zakopane for a week (in fact, he has been here for at least ten days). Schulz was to send Waśniewski his address in Zakopane so that they could meet, as he wrote in his letter of July 13: “I am waiting for you with joy. However, you must wait for a message from me from Zakopane, because I do not know my future address”3. However, only Waśniewski's card reminds Schulz of the promise. The author of The Street of Crocodiles, probably feeling remorseful, tries to encourage Waśniewski to come as fervently as possible: “I am waiting for you with curiosity and joy. Come! We will discuss everything else orally”4. Schulz even declares that in the absence of places5, he could arrange for an extra bed to be put in his room. On that day, you may also see Witkacy, who writes in a letter to his wife: “I am working, conferring, etc.”6. 

See also: March 15, 1934, March 24, 1934 ], April 2, 193 [4], April 24, 1934, June 5, 1934, June 23, 1934, August 28, 1934, September 14, 1934, September 30, 1934, October 6, 1934, October 15, 1934, November 7, 1934, November 15, 1934, December 19, 1934, January 28, 1935, March 16, 1935 [March 25, 1935], June 24, 1935, July 13, 1935, July 24, 1935, July 25, 1935, July 31, 1935, [August 7, 1935 1935], August 14, 1935*, June 2, 1937, August 4, 1937, [January 5, 1938], April 24, 1938. (ts) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    Waśniewski’s letter was redirected from Drohobycz to Zakopane: “I only received your card from home today” (Bruno Schulz, Księga listów, collected and prepared for printing by Jerzy Ficowski, supplemented by Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, letter to Zenon Waśniewski, p. 89).
  • 2
    Schulz probably deliberately rented a guesthouse in close proximity to Witkacy’s villa, which he could have reached on foot.
  • 3
    Bruno Schulz, op. cit., p. 88.
  • 4
    Ibid.
  • 5
    On August 4-11, 1935, the Festival of Mountains was held, attracting thousands of tourists from all over Poland to Zakopane, see August 7, 1935.
  • 6
    Which means that he meets people in the villa “Na Antołówce”, conducts talks with them (conferences) and paints portraits, see Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Listy do żony (1932–1935), prepared for printing by Anna Micińska, edited and annotated by Janusz Degler, Warsaw 2010, p. 314.