72. The New “Kürschner”

The new “Kürschner” has arrived with a great delay this time. The question of all the thousands of people to whom Kürschner's “Literature Calendar” has long since become the most indispensable reference book, because it is consulted daily for advice on all kinds of literary matters, became more and more impatient as the new year progressed: when would the “new Kürschner” be coming, and why was it taking so long? As the year draws to a close, one may no longer trust the reliability of the old calendar; literature is like a swiftly flowing stream, each wave brings something new; and the literary figures themselves are a very changeable people. Much becomes outdated in the course of a year, and with each passing day the question becomes more urgent as the new edition of the calendar, which has set itself the task of cataloging the approximately fifteen thousand men and women who write and compose in German, becomes overdue. And now, with the arrival of spring, it has finally arrived. Because it wants to be a harbinger of spring from now on, we had to believe in [the] terrible, incomprehensible delay. It is perhaps quite right that the “Kürschner” will now appear in April instead of at the beginning of the year. Because it is intended to be a reliable address book above all else, and most changes of address among the men of the pen also coincide with the bourgeois moving date, the postponement of the publication of Kürschner's Literary Calendar from the beginning of the year to the beginning of spring seems entirely justified. This year's volume is more complete and more comprehensive than the previous one, although, as the foreword by its editor says, a number of “xen” have been eliminated – thank God! – as they dragged themselves through the volumes as useless ballast. And yet, despite the fact that this year's volume appears to be considerably thinner than last year's, the number of pages has increased by thirty-two. The paper has not become thinner or worse; the pleasant slimness of the “new Kürschner” is therefore probably due to the bookbinder of the Göschen'schen Buchhandlung, which has moved from Stuttgart to Leipzig.