"Walking with Walser" by: [Switzerland] Karl Selig Publisher: Guangxi Normal University Press

Introduction · · · · · ·
★Robert Walser, the "poet whose fate is like snow", was posthumously named the founder of modern German literature

He worked as a clerk, a servant, served in the military, was in a mental hospital, and finally died in the snow;

But he was admired by Kafka, praised by Hesse and respected by Benjamin.

Robert Walser, a Swiss German writer, is regarded as the founder of modern German literature.

Kafka is just a special case of the Walser type.

——Musil

Walser had a reason to hide in the asylum and never see the world again. He either saved himself in the asylum or was starved to death by Swiss professors and radio managers. Although these people have good jobs, they can't write a single beautiful article like Walser.

——Hesse

It is precisely in the work of Robert Walser that we first notice an extraordinary, indescribable sparseness. This nothingness is weight, this chaos is perseverance - this is the last fact that the reader can think of when reading Walser's work.

— Benjamin

★The only true record of the last twenty years of Walser's life, a twenty-year walking diary of "a walker who missed time" and his close friend

In 1929 he took refuge in a mental hospital and lived in seclusion for the rest of his life.

Since 1936, Karl Seilich has taken walks with Walser and kept a diary, recording the master's precious quotations, which became the only record of the last twenty years of Walser's life.

★Designer Shanchuan used elegant colors to restore the texture of the past

This German-style square-spine hardcover pocket book is easy to carry and flip through, and is suitable for reading short chapters in a diary-like style. It contains many historical photo illustrations, which restore the ordinary life of a great writer and show how to use walking to resist the loneliness of life.

【Celebrity Recommendation】

That Walser has not become a forgotten writer today is largely due to the work done by Karl Seilich on his career. Without Seilich's descriptions of his walks with Walser, without his preliminary work on the biography, without his published selections and his decoding of Walser's manuscripts - Walser would not have recovered and his memory would have likely faded.

——WG Sebald

[Karl Seilich’s] personal firsthand account is the closest thing to Walser’s memoirs we have. He asks Walser questions about his personal and professional history, his literary and political views, like those an oral historian would ask, and Walser answers calmly, trusting his companion and coloring the conversation with his characteristic humor and unusual observations.

—Sarah Cowan, Bookforum

A Walk with Walser fully demonstrates Walser's philosophy of living a humble life, finding beauty in ordinary things, and getting by with less.

—Moira David

【Content Introduction】

In 1929, Swiss German writer Robert Walser took refuge in a mental hospital and lived out the rest of his life in seclusion.

In 1933, Walser stopped writing. He said he was not here to write, but to go crazy. If he wanted to write, he would not come. He turned to practicing another favorite activity: hiking.

From 1936, Karl Seilich visited regularly, took walks with Walser, and kept a diary, which became the only record of the last twenty years of Walser's life.

During the long walk, Selig entered the heart of the long-silent poet, and Walser began to express his insights on life and literature again.

On Christmas Day 1956, Walser died in the snow of the Alps, first discovered by a hunting dog, then by nearby farmers, and then by the whole world.

About the Author
Carl Seelig (1894-1962) was a Swiss editor and writer, a friend and executor of Robert Walser's will, and the first biographer of Einstein. He wrote Walking with Walser and My World View.

Jiang Yongjun, Ph.D. in philosophy, graduated from Nanjing University. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Hegel Archives of the University of Bochum in Germany and is currently teaching at Northwest University of Political Science and Law.