Microscripts

Walser, Robert; Susan Bernofsky, trans.

Verlag: New Directions / Christine Burgin Books, 2012

Sterling condition softcover copy, with unfurled tips, tight binding, and clean internals, showing only very slight shelf- and edge-wear to the gate-fold wraps. Translated from the original German by Susan Bernofsky, and who provides also an Introduction. Postlogue from Walter Benjamin. From the publisher's blurb, "The Swiss writer of whom Hermann Hesse famously declared, If he had a hundred thousand readers, the world would be a better place, Robert Walser (1878 1956) is only now finding an audience among English-speaking readers commensurate with his merits if not with his self-image. After a wandering, precarious life during which he produced poems, essays, stories, and novels, Walser entered an insane asylum, saying, "I am not here to write, but to be mad." Many of the unpublished works he left were in fact written in an idiosyncratically abbreviated script that was for years dismissed as an impenetrable private cipher. Fourteen texts from these so-called pencil manuscripts are included in this volume rich evidence that Walser's microscripts, rather than the work of incipient madness, were in actuality the product of desperate genius building a last reserve, and as such, a treasure in modern literature. With a brisk preface and a chronology of Walser s life and work, this collection of fifty translations of short prose pieces covers the middle to later years of the writer s oeuvre. It provides unparalleled insight into Walser s creative process, along with a unique opportunity to experience the unfolding of his rare and eccentric gift." Volume contains scholarly apparatus in the form of, e.g., notes, index, and bibliography. 143 pp., then followed by a range of Maira Kalman watercolors illustrating the Swiss author's life.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 355657

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Microscripts
Verlag: New Directions / Christine Burgin Books
Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
Einband: Softcover
Zustand: Near Fine