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Schulz, Bruno : Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass

Walker & Co., New York, 1978

ISBN 0802705928

Nearly fine copy in very good dust jacket, 8vo, 178 pp.

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Schulz, Bruno (Translated by Celina Wieniewska) : Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass

Walker Publishing Company, Inc., New York City, NY, 1978

ISBN 0802705928

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 178 pages. The author's second collection of prose fiction. One of the greatest books of the 20th century. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Bruno Schulz's "Sanatorium Under The Sign of The Hourglass" in a felicitous English translation. The second of his two masterpieces. Schulz's reputation as a seminal, one-of-a-kind writer is based entirely on two slim volumes, "Street of Crocodiles" (also known as "Cinnamon Shops") and "Sanatorium Under The Sign of The Hourglass". His unaffected love for all forms of earthly life - it's not just empathy, and Isaac Bashevis Singer is right to point out that in this sense, he went even deeper than either Kafka or Proust - and sublime vision of human life as an eternal childhood demonstrate his genius to intuit and create a landscape, a mood, a feeling, and finally, a whole universe that comes alive "with an unpredictable spirit-force, where every living tissue contains ghosts" (Cynthia Ozick). Magically and beguilingly "impressionistic" in a painterly way (Schulz considered himself primarily an artist and earned his living as an art teacher), Bruno Schulz's prose style has no precedent and many admirer/followers, including some of the greatest writers of our time. A Polish Jew, Schulz was hunted down and shot to death on a ghetto street by a Gestapo officer (to get back at a Gestapo rival who was Schulz's "patron") during a particularly brutal pogrom in 1942. His fellow Jews were too terrified to remove his body and waited for days before doing so to bury him. After the Second World War, Stalinist Poland condemned his work, inflicting a second, even more fatal death. But true greatness is not only its own reason for being, reward, or redemption. It is, as Ozick acutely observes, the spirit-force itself that quivers constantly with life, contains ghosts, and is immortal. Bruno Schulz is one of the great human souls who have ultimately prevailed in a world of soul-killers. Every reader who discovers him will never think of life or literature in quite the same way again. "He wrote sometimes like Kafka, sometimes like Proust, and at times succeeded in reaching depths that neither of them reached" (Isaac Bashevis Singer). An absolute "must-have" title for Bruno Schulz collectors. This title is a great book. This is one of few copies of the First American Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with 30 drawing plates by the author. One of the greatest artist/writers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER BRUNO SCHULZ TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0802705928.

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