Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser

by Susan Bernofsky

Overview

The first English-language biography of one of the great literary talents of the twentieth century, written by his award-winning translator
 
Finalist for the 2021 NBCC Award for Biography
 
“[An] authoritative, moving biography. . . . Walser made of his own multiform solitudes a gift to the outside world, offering readers an existential sympathy of a kind for which only he could find the appropriate literary expression.”—Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement
 
The great Swiss-German modernist author Robert Walser lived eccentrically on the fringes of European society—his pronounced interest in everything inconspicuous and modest prompted W. G. Sebald to dub him “a clairvoyant of the small.” His revolutionary use of short prose forms won him the admiration of Franz Kafka, Walter Benjamin, Robert Musil, and many others. In this immaculately researched and beautifully written biography Susan Bernofsky sets Walser in the context of early twentieth century European history, establishing him as one of the most important modernist writers. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300220643
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	05/25/2021
Pages:	392
Sales rank:	1,140,749
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Susan Bernofsky is professor of writing at Columbia University School of the Arts and director of the literary translation program in Columbia’s MFA Writing Program. She has translated more than twenty books.

Table of Contents

Introduction Searching for Robert Walser 1

1 Behind the Toy Shop (1878-1894) 11

2 From the Bank to the Stage (1885-1896) 27

3 The Young Poet (1896-1899) 39

4 Drama (1899-1900) 63

5 The German Cities (1900-1903) 83

6 The First Published Book (1903-1905) 97

7 A Berliner and a Novelist (1905-1906) 110

8 The Balloon Ride (1907-1908) 126

9 The Fall (1908-1913) 141

10 The Return to Switzerland (1913-1914) 159

11 A Walk in Wartime (1915-1917) 178

12 The Aftermath of War (1917-1920) 194

13 The Secret Novel (1921-1925) 219

14 The Unraveling (1925-1929) 246

15 The Quiet Years (1929-1956) 272

Epilogue 307

Appendix: Robert Walser's known Addresses 311

Notes 315

Acknowledgments 355

Credits 357

Index 359

Illustrations follow page 184

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/10/2021

Translator Bernofsky (Foreign Words) teases out misperceptions about “unwaveringly devoted” Swiss author Robert Walser (1878–1956) in this masterful biography. “Not so long ago,” Bernofsky writes, Walser was “the greatest modernist author you’d never heard of,” though now his life is “full of gaps.” Arguably best known for his microscripts, works discovered after his death composed in minuscule writing, Walser was born to a middle-class family, but financial hardship after the family business collapsed meant that at age 14, he had to leave school. Walser moved to Zurich, then to Berlin with his brother, and finally back to Switzerland, where he began writing his signature short-form pieces. In 1921, Bernofsky writes, “mental illness became a complicating factor in his life,” and he entered an asylum where he stayed for the last 28 years of his life: he died alone, while taking one of his beloved walks. With skillful and lucid readings of Walser’s work, Bernofsky succeeds in creating a portrait of Walser as a “master craftsman”—his short-form essays “constructed elaborate edifices around the simplest topics,” while his 1921 novel, Theodor, showed “a layer of self-reflexive complexity” not seen in his earlier work. This balanced and meticulous account shines a bright light on a misunderstood and influential writer. (May)

Publishers Weekly

An accurate, independent, and well-researched English life . . . There is a delicacy in [Bernofsky’s] approach, a will-to-kindness, an openness to other, previously rejected possibilities.”—Michael Hofmann, New York Review of Books

“A diligent biography . . . [Walser’s] miniatures account for some of the most sublimely joyful writing of the past century . . . Ms. Bernofsky wants to peer behind the smiling naïf to better glimpse the lonely, erratic artist.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

“As Susan Bernofsky's authoritative, moving biography demonstrates, Walser made of his own multiform solitudes a gift to the outside world, offering readers an existential sympathy of a kind for which only he could find the appropriate literary expression.”—Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement

“Elegant [and] perceptive . . . A surprising, brilliant look at a man who never stopped looking inward.”—Michael Schaub, National Book Critics Circle

“[A] masterful biography . . . This balanced and meticulous account shines a bright light on a misunderstood and influential writer.”—Publishers Weekly  (starred review)

“Clairvoyant of the Small is a meticulous and agile books that feels extremely thorough in its scholarship, yet holds all this erudition lightly. . . . [It] is an illuminating, engrossing read for anyone who has come to be mesmerized by Walser’s singular literary voice.”—Veronica Esposito, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Nuanced [and] well-researched . . . In this rich biography, Bernofsky succeeds in finding a writer who, in his smallness, is capable of greatness.”—Steve Matuszak, Rain Taxi

“[An] extraordinary biography. . . . A fascinating and rigorous account of this most elusive author.”—Christopher Urban, Threepenny Review

“A triumph . . . An accessible, engaging, brilliant exploration of the intertwining of life and work.”—Dorian Stuber, On the Seawall

“Erudite, painstakingly thorough, and sensitively written.”—Andrea Scrima, American Scholar

“An affectionate, precise piece of writing that illustrates a man of complexities both personal and professional. . . . An intimate portrait of an artist, soul-crushing in its realism, with all its valor and rigor.”—Cigdem Asatekin, Brooklyn Rail
 

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography
 

“In this nuanced, astute, and revelatory biography, Susan Bernofsky gives us Walser the man—mysterious, intellectually adventuresome, humble, an artist of the first order. So, too, is Bernofsky's exceptional book: of the first order.”—Hilton Als

“Susan Bernofsky's deep and decades-long involvement with Robert Walser's work has resulted in a meticulously researched, lively narrative and astute critical study of this complex and appealing writer. Clairvoyant of the Small is one of the best biographies I've read in a long time.”—Lydia Davis

“Robert Walser is the perfect pathetic poet: pithy, awkward, drinks too much, sibling rivalrous, ambitious, broke, and mentally ill. Was he proto queer or trans, this red headed writer who next to Gertrude Stein might be the most influential writer of our moment? Riveting and heart-breaking, this biography kept me drunk for days.”—Eileen Myles

"Written with true love, Susan Bernofsky’s meticulously investigated book is a sensitive and subtle analysis of Robert Walser’s radical life and work, casting a blazing light on this giant of literature."—Thomas Hirschhorn

“A magnificent work of scholarship and among the finest literary biographies I’ve ever read—gorgeously written, immensely well researched, and addictively readable.”—Samuel Frederick, The Pennsylvania State University

From the Publisher