Wandering with Robert Walser

Here are a few bits and pieces on the facsimile edition of Robert Walser microscripts coming out in May 2010:

From the website of the Christine Burgin Gallery, which is publishing the book in partnership with New Directions Publishing:

Projects & Publications: Robert Walser
In Spring 2010 the Christine Burgin Gallery and New Directions will publish a facsimile edition of Robert Walser’s microscripts with new translations by Susan Bernofsky. This will be the first publication in English illustrated by and devoted to Robert Walser’s microscripts. more

From Cantos: A New Directions Blog, in a post highlighting spring releases from ND:

The Microscripts by Robert Walser
Robert Walser wrote many of his manuscripts in a highly enigmatic, shrunken-down form. These narrow strips of paper (many of them written during his hospitalization in the Waldau sanatorium) covered with tiny ant-like markings only a millimeter or two high, came to light only after the author’s death in 1956. At first considered a secret code, the microscripts were eventually discovered to be a radically miniaturized form of a German script: a whole story could fit on the back of a business card. Selected from the six-volume German transcriptions from the original microscripts, these 25 short pieces are gathered in this gorgeously illustrated co-publication with the Christine Burgin Gallery. each microscript is reproduced in full color in its original form: the detached cover of a trashy crime novel, a disappointing letter, a receipt of payment. more

From the pre-order page at Amazon.com:

The Microscripts (Hardcover)
Selected from the six-volume German transcriptions from the original microscripts, these 25 short pieces are gathered in this gorgeously illustrated co-publication with the Christine Burgin Gallery. Each microscript is reproduced in full color in its original form: the detached cover of a trashy crime novel, a disappointing letter, a receipt of payment. Sometimes Walser used the pages of small tear-off calendars (but only after cutting them lengthwise and filling up each half with text). Schnapps, rotten husbands, small town life, the radio, pigs (and how none of us can deny being one), jealousy, Van Gogh and marriage proposals are some of Walser’s subjects. These texts take strength from Walser’s motto: “To be small and to stay small.” 65 full-color illustrations. more

You can see some nice images if you click the “more” links above for the Burgin Gallery and the ND blog.

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Sam :: Nov.29.2009 :: Microscripts :: 2 Comments »

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