May 1935

Warsaw. The short story The Book by Bruno Schulz is published in the 58th issue of Skamander.

The publication started Schulz’s cooperation with the monthly Skamander*, published, just like Wiadomości Literackie*, by Mieczysław Grydzewski*. At the end of the story, the editors added an illustration drawn by Feliks Topolski, which is in no way related to the text. The Book was the first story in the volume Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass* (1937). The book version, which differs in several dozen places from the magazine one, was illustrated by the author with two pictures of the street organ and the organ grinder in two different perspectives. According to Jerzy Ficowski*, the piece is “most likely the eliminated part of The Messiah”1]. It might be the case, indeed, although this time, unlike in the case of Brilliant Era2 published a year before, there is no such information in the text. (sr) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    Cf. Bruno Schulz, Dzieła zebrane, volume 5: Księga listów, zebrał i przygotował do druku Jerzy Ficowski, uzupełnił Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 346, fn. 21.
  • 2
    Cf. Wiadomości Literackie 1934, no. 13 from April 1.