Letters and Drawings of Bruno Schulz

by Jerzy Ficowski, Walter Arndt, Bruno Schulz

Book by Jerzy Ficowski, Walter Arndt, Bruno Schulz

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography, Literature, Polish Literature, Essays, Poland

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1988

About the author

A Polish poet, writer and translator (from Yiddish, Russian and Romani).

Reviews

[Andrew]

It's terribly strange reading Schulz, knowing he's about to die at the hand of the Nazis, and he seems completely caught up in his dreamy prose and meditations on Polish spring – and it is beautifully dreamy, I've adored his writing since I was in my teens. And you get an insight into his mind, his friendships, his failures, and his art, both literary and visual, including the odd claim that his drawings of beautiful waifs pressing stunted men (who look kinda like Schulz himself) beneath their dainty stocking feet are in no way pornographic (ahem).

[Tripp]

Fascinating correspondence between Schulz and other members of Eastern Europe's artistic society, shadowed by the oncoming disaster of World War II: so many of the editorial annotations describing these letters and their writers end with some version of "Died in [name of concentration camp]" and "Shot by Ukrainian militia." Contains an eyewitness account of Schulz's murder in the Drogobych ghetto by a Nazi officer, because a rival Nazi officer liked Schulz's pen and ink drawings.

Also contains Schulz's ars poetica as well as his sublime "Republic of Dreams," an essay that lovingly captures his relationship to childhood, particularly as it nourishes his fiction.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schulz had many pseudonyms and tracing his biographical life to the dead end is not easy. I like his writing, the letters reveal a man who had great capacity for a literary life and future. Amazing how he had so many gifts.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The town had fallen into that wild luxuriance as into a sleep raised to the hundredth power, supine in a daze from the summer's heat and glare, in a thick maze of cobwebs and greenery, empty and shallow of breath."

- sentence from 'The Republic of Dreams' (short story included both in this volume and 'The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories' in Celina Wieniewska's beautiful translation)

usually I don't rate the books I haven't read 100% of, but I think I've perused this and Ficowski's other book on Schulz enough to mark one as 'read'; I liked both & i think they're worth looking into for anyone interested in learning more about Schulz's life & world.

Although I read that in the countless letters he wrote prior to the publication of Cinammon Shops, that essentially became Cinammon Shops, (almost all destroyed in WWII) he'd made an artform out of letter-writing (the idea of which is so inspiring to me), that doesn't reflect much here- in this book I found the letters mostly underwhelming :/ The short philosophical essays/articles are much more interesting though; a few reminded me a of Fernando Pessoa's aphoristic style in The Book of Disquiet. My favorites of the essays are "Bruno Schulz: An Essay For S.I. Witkiewicz" and "The Mythologizing of Reality" - I scanned them both since they're short - (Imgur link) - for posterity/ anyone interested. This book is also full of his artwork - mostly drawings - which was interesting to see.

Jerzy Ficowski's aforementioned other book on Schulz, 'Regions of The Great Heresy: A Biographical Portrait', is worth finding a copy of even if just to read the last chapter on Ficowski's lifelong search for Schulz' lost final work, 'The Messiah' (speculated as his masterpiece, also speculated to have barely existed as a draft, the unfinished manuscript was lost in WWII). It's an intriguing and heartbreaking story of a search that continues to this day.

[Michalina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

[Alex J. Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in one sitting on the beach. It’s a staggering work that of surreal genius. It is so layered and rich and cleverly rendered. I am proud to be AH.

[Dionysius the Areopagite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked up from a 6th Ave bookseller three years ago and has been at my bedside ever since.