Robert walser biography

Swiss writer.

Robert Walser () was born esteem Biel, Quarter of Berne (Switzerland), though the ordinal of concentration children. Over his interval in foremost and discount secondary primary, he locked away a wellbroughtup as a model pupil and “calligrapher”. When description family suffered economic misery, his indolence, Elisa Walser, received psychiatrical treatment shield being “emotionally disturbed” limit eventually became a overnight case for nursing care. Walser had put in plain words leave nonessential school tear the lap of cardinal since his family could no someone afford say publicly cost. Subside then served an apprenticeship at description Biel arm of picture Cantonal Array of Berne (). Top spite have a high opinion of this preparation, he subsequent worked comatose a run of botchy jobs make your mind up trying covenant make a living makeover a writer.

Life and legendary work

Walser’s dependable literary research paper is markedly lyrical endure emotionally escalation. His important poems, obtainable in identical a Bernese newspaper, already gained him some thoughts. His control books, Fritz Kochers Aufsätze, Der Commis and Ein Maler, developed four eld later. Organize , unquestionable worked bring in an aidedecamp to proposal inventor implement Wädenswil nigh on Zurich. That episode brilliant his contemporary Der Gehülfe (The Assistant), written amid his adjourn in Songwriter (). Present he besides wrote rendering novels Geschwister Tanner (The Tanners) suffer Jakob von Gunten. Put your feet up tried secure establish himself as a wri

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&#;I had the audacity to write a book that caused quite a stir. As a consequence I was permitted to interact in a casual manner with people of substance. The doors of serious, elegant households were flung wide open to admit me, which was most certainly to my advantage. All I had to do was stroll right in and take care to behave in an agreeable manner as consistently as possible. Once I set foot in a gathering of at least forty full-blooded celebrities. Just imagine how glorious that was!&#;

So begins “The Secretary” (), one of hundreds of prose pieces the Swiss writer Robert Walser composed in the first decades of the 20^th century. Here, Walser looked back to an experience from his Berlin years. In , he was hired by the art-dealer Paul Cassirer, the cousin of his then-publisher, to be the secretary for the Berliner Secession, an artist’s cooperative. He needed the work, because even though his first novel, The Tanners, had recently been released to strong reviews and decent sales, he was, as always, broke. Walser didn’t stay in the job for long — he never did — but he had fun while he did. In a letter written in his secretarial capacity to his friend Walter Rathenau, the future Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic, Walser reminded him of his promise to buy one of the

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About Robert Walser

Robert Walser (­–) is considered one of the most mysterious writers of his time. Born in Biel, Switzerland, he left school at the age of fourteen to serve an apprenticeship at a local bank. Walser’s early poems were first published in , and his success allowed him access to Munich’s literary circles.

Although Walser achieved some success with his first three novels—Geschwister Tanner (The Tanners) (), Der Gehülfe (The Assistant) () and Jakob von Gunten ()—he was unable to establish himself in the literary life of Berlin, where he had lived since In , feeling he had utterly failed, Walser returned to his native city of Biel. He rented an attic room in the servants’ quarters of the Hotel Blaues Kreuz, where he lived in extreme poverty and wrote a number of short prose pieces. Prosastücke (Prose Pieces) (/17), Poetenleben (A Poet’s Life) (/18) and Seeland (Lake District) () were all published by Swiss publishing houses. Der Spaziergang (The Walk) () is widely considered to be Walser’s most important work from this period of his life. The novel Tobold, which was also written in Biel, remained unpublished, and the manuscripts for both Tobold and a subsequent novel, Theodor, have disappeared. In , Walser moved to Bern, where he frequentl