77. Kürschner's Literature Calendar

The literary calendar for 1898 by Joseph Kürschner has recently been published. The incomparable care with which Kürschner works on such works has long been so well known that I can spare myself the task of praising it again this time. No less well known is the indispensability of this handbook for anyone who has to maintain a connection with the world of writers. But it is remarkable that Kürschner has to complain every year about how little writers remember this indispensability at the right moment. “The writing man” - says Kürschner in the preface - “seems to have a preference for treating his address lightly, to his own detriment! Writing is also subject to the same rules of communication, and the same man who protects his clothes from moth damage before going on a journey does nothing to ensure that his mail is received in his absence. If he is constantly in arrears, he is even less likely to think about staying in touch and sinks irretrievably into the quagmire of unreliable contacts for editors and calendar publishers. And then there is the - well, let's call it laziness in answering, in simply returning a form, the consequences of which usually have to be suffered by the innocent. There is a gentleman from Leipzig, the owner of two rubber stamps with addresses on them, who is therefore practically predestined to take care of his formalities, who has gradually fallen into the drain (i.e. is no longer in the literary calendar), because his existence could no longer be proven to me. Now, at last, he reports to my “highborn” using the aforementioned rubber stamps, expressing his particular “astonishment at having fallen under the table. He is neither ‘proud’ nor ‘conceited, to be ’stingy” after being included, but believes he “can claim a right” that “others are undeservedly granted”. The veil of modesty in which the offended innocence had been wrapped up until then now becomes a toga, in whose folds war and peace rest. In a tone that not only I, but also the rules of Alberti's feud, the renegade concludes his epistle: “Of course I will not find myself obliged to work for a cause that - as I must believe - fights with superficiality or partiality.”» There can truly be no question of superficiality here. The literary legal relationships, the literary associations and foundations, and everything that one would like to know about these things are listed with admirable thoroughness. The “literary chronicle” of the past year is carefully treated, and the names, titles, works and addresses, as well as the age of the writers, are recorded in a way that cannot be praised enough in this literary address book. And no authority could proceed more impartially when it comes to compiling an address book. The directory of publishers, magazines and newspapers, German theaters and their boards, agencies, etc. is also useful. In short, Kürschner does what he can. One can only hope that his justified complaints about the lack of support from his colleagues in the field will become less frequent from year to year.