June 1934

Drohobych. Bruno Schulz meets Karol Kuryluk, editor of Sygnały, with whom he establishes rules for further cooperation.

The meeting was probably initiated by Kuryluk*, who, as the editor of the newly created magazine, tried to expand the circle of contributing authors. He was in the company of Anna Baranowska1, who cooperated with the editorial office. They tried to win over the increasingly popular writer for Sygnały2.

The full title of the journal was: Sygnały. Miesięcznik. Sprawy społeczne – literatura – sztuka (Signals. A Monthly. Social Matters – Literature – Art). It was initially published by “a group of young people coming from the Polish Studies Club of the Jan Kazimierz University*, without a specific ideological or artistic program, who felt the need for writing, publishing their works and wider public activity”3. The first issue was published on November 1, 1933, just a few months before Kuryluk’s meeting with Schulz in Drohobych. In this issue, the editors declared: “We are entering the world without any program! We do not want to utter big words and slogans or put up paper boundaries, which would then harden into a wall and which we would have to beat our heads against helplessly… Together we are neither left nor right. We also do not represent the golden mean in social or literary terms. We just want to be human and that’s enough”4.

The editorial office of Sygnały had noticed Schulz before. The January issue of the monthly published a small note on The Cinnamon Shops* – one of the first critical reactions to Schulz’s debut book. For this reason alone, the writer must have noticed the recently debuting journal, especially as it quickly began to gain publicity. Anyway, he agreed to Kuryluk’s proposal and promised to send him an excerpt from his prose. He did not fulfil this promise until the end of September that year, handing over to the editorial office for printing A July Night, previously promised to Zenon Waśniewski* and Kamena*. This publication started Schulz’s cooperation with Sygnały, which lasted until 1939. (sr) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    Thanks to her oral account, passed on to Jerzy Ficowski years later, we know that the meeting took place in June 1934. Cf. Bruno Schulz, Dzieła zebrane, volume 5: Księga listów, zebrał i przygotował do druku Jerzy Ficowski, uzupełnił Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 358, fn. 4.
  • 2
    “For […] young debutants, Karol Kuryluk in his twenties was already an editorial authority and a ‘Sir’. The dynamics changed when the serious editor wanted to ‘get’ famous names for Sygnały. Then he acted carefully, sent letters, sought attention” – Ewa Pankiewicz, “Karol Kuryluk i Sygnały”, Kwartalnik Historii Prasy Polskiej ch. 23, 1984, no. 2, pp. 71–85.
  • 3
    Ewa Danowska, “Sygnały 1933–1939 – lwowskie czasopismo o ogólnopolskim zasięgu”, Rocznik Bibliologiczno-Prasoznawczy ch. IX, 2017, no. 20, pp. 195–205.
  • 4
    Sygnały 1933, no. 1, p. 1.