Microscripts

Robert Walser wrote many of his manuscripts in a highly enigmatic, shrunken-down form. These narrow strips of paper, covered with tiny ant-like pencil markings a millimeter high, came to light only after the author's death in 1956.At first considered random restless pencil markings or a secret code, the microscripts were in time discovered to be a radically miniaturized form of antique German script: a whole story was deciphered on the back of a business card. These twenty-five short pieces address schnapps, rotten husbands, small town life, elegant jaunts, the radio, swine, jealousy, and marriage proposals.

About the author

Robert Walser (1878-1956) was born in Switzerland. He left school at fourteen and led a wandering and precarious existence working as a bank clerk, a butler in a castle, and an inventor's assistant while producing essays, stories, and novels. In 1933 he abandoned writing and entered a sanatorium-where he remained for the rest of his life. "I am not here to write," Walser said, "but to be mad."

Product details

• Authors: Robert Walser, Robert Kalman Walser
• Assisted by: Maira Kalman (Illustration), Susan Bernofsky (Translation), Susan (Columbia University) Bernofsky (Translation)
• Publisher: New Directions
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 18 to 22
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 30.11.2012
• EAN: 9780811220330
• ISBN: 978-0-8112-2033-0
• No. of pages: 160
• Dimensions: 165 mm x 225 mm x 18 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Poetry, drama