[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)