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

“Bernofsky takes us into the heart of an artist’s life/work struggles, brilliantly illuminating Walser’s exquisite sensibility and uncompromising radical innovations, while deftly tracking how his life gradually came apart at the seams. A tragic and intimate portrait.”—Amy Sillman

“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

The great Swiss-German modernist author Robert Walser lived eccentrically on the fringes of society, shocking his Berlin friends by enrolling in butler school and later developing an urban-nomad lifestyle in the Swiss capital, Bern, before checking himself into a psychiatric clinic. A connoisseur of power differentials, his pronounced interest in everything inconspicuous and modest—social outcasts and artists as well as the impoverished, marginalized, and forgotten—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.
 
He was long believed an outsider by conviction, but Susan Bernofsky presents a more nuanced view in this immaculately researched and beautifully written biography. Setting Walser in the context of early twentieth century European history, she provides illuminating analysis of his extraordinary life and work, bearing witness to his “extreme artistic delight.&rdquo

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300258264
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	05/25/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Susan Bernofsky is associate 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 over 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

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