„Cinnamon Shops” 1963

Abstract

The article presents the paratextual framing of the first English edition of Bruno Schulz’s short story collection: Cinnamon Shops and Other Stories, published in 1963 in London by McGibbon & Kee. It describes the book cover and blurb, and offers a brief commentary on Celina Wieniewska’s Translator’s Preface, setting it in the context of its time. Naive and error-ridden as it seems today, Wieniewska’s short introduction, largely based on Jerzy Ficowski’s early findings, reflects the state of knowledge about Schulz prior to the development of Schulz Studies as we know it, and it is worth scholarly attention as the first English-language text of this kind. Interestingly, despite being out of date, it has been reprinted without revision in almost all subsequent editions of Wieniewska’s translation, up until the most recent one, from 2012.