Abstract
Writing this introduction to the work of Arno Schmidt is as paradoxical as the subject himself: a writer who is less well known--even among German readers-than he deserves, while at the same time he has provoked more attention, or notoriety, than his Salinger-like posture as hermit-in-residence of Bargfeld (a banal small village in the Liineburg Heath) would seem to allow. Indeed, this author lives an existence monomanically devoted to reading-voraciously and widely -and to writing. The latter always reflects the former: the fruits of his reading are compressed and left to ferment in vats, that is to say, in his famous card files, or Zettelkiisten. Starting with Zettels Traum (1970), that enormous hybrid, Schmidt has been bottling the distilled product in the form of typescripts published photomechanically and unadulterated by editing. It is a blend of life and letters, literally distilled aqua vitae, admittedly heady stuff, even unpalatable for many a tongue.
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