before March 4, 1935

[Drohobych]. Bruno Schulz writes a letter to Wacław Czarski, in which he complains about the work at school and the lack of response from Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Witold Gombrowicz.

Resentful, Schulz confides his problems to Czarski, the editor-in-chief of “Tygodnik Ilustrowany”. Work at school seems to him the biggest obstacle on the way to realizing his literary vocation: “What to do? Am I to renounce what I consider my mission, my proper task? Should I consider manual work as the end and goal of my endeavours?”1. Schulz admits that as a teacher, he has to do things that go against his own beliefs, including suppressing the natural spontaneity of his students. This situation disgusts him, every day he leaves school “brutalized and internally dirty, with a disgust with himself”2. That is why he asks Czarski for support in the matter of paid leave from teaching work and for intercession with Władysław Zawistowski, the then head of the Art Department of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education3.

Moreover, Schulz asks Czarski for two additional weeks to create illustrations for Edzio4 and expresses doubts as to whether the joint publication with Witkiewicz – “my article about myself (in the form of an interview with Witkacy – exchange of letters – letter interview)” – will ever be published5. Schulz claims that his answers have been with the author of The Shoemakers for a week now and he would have liked to send them to “Tygodnik” if he had not been afraid of Witkiewicz’s anger. In response to Schulz’s letter, Czarski will write to Witkacy on March 4: “I would be very grateful if you would send me this interview with Schulz. Maybe your short introduction would be enough”6.

In the end, Schulz recalls that Gombrowicz did not send him the promised fragment for illustration. It is probably a fragment of Ferdydurke, which was published in the July issue of “Skamander”7.

See also: March 4, 1935, April 4, 1935. (ts) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    Bruno Schulz, Księga listów, collected and prepared for printing by Jerzy Ficowski, supplemented by Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 98.
  • 2
    Ibid.
  • 3
    Czarski’s support is paying off. In March 1935, Schulz receives a letter from Władysław Zawistowski (announced by Czarski), which agrees to the vacation. Schulz wrote back to him on March 19*. On March 20*, he sends an application to the Board of the Lviv School District with a request for a paid ten-month leave for the 1935/1936 school year. Eventually, Schulz was granted leave from January 1, 1936* to June 30, 1936*. See Bruno Schulz, Księga listów..., p. 101–102 (letter no. I 60), pp. 236–237 (letter no. II 12), and Jerzy Ficowski, Listy do władz szkolnych nauczyciela Brunona Schulza, [in:] Bruno Schulz, Księga listów..., p. 224.
  • 4
    Edzio appears in “Tygodnik Ilustrowany” on October 6, 1935* with five illustrations by Schulz: Edzio, Twilight, Pan Jakób, Nocny Rozardjasz, Adela. See Bruno Schulz, Edzio, “Tygodnik Ilustrowany”, no. 40, p. 789–791.
  • 5
    Contrary to Schulz’s fears, the interview is published on April 28, 1935*, see “Tygodnik Ilustrowany”, no. 17, pp. 321–323.
  • 6
    Wacław Czarski’s letter is on the back of a letter to his wife Jadwiga Witkiewiczowa from March 8, 1935, see Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Listy do żony (1932–1935), prepared for printing by Anna Micińska, edited and annotated by Janusz Degler, Warszawa 2010, p. 295 (no. 875).
  • 7
    The fragment is illustrated with one drawing by Feliks Topolski; it was certainly a choice of the editorial office, not of Gombrowicz himself. See Witold Gombrowicz, Ferdydurke, “Skamander”, July 1935, p. 264–284.