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Table of Contents

Version Log

Translation Notes

26 July 1936

First Wanderung . . . St. Gallen--Löchlibad . . . Lisa's advice . . Robert's history . . . admiration for Dostoevsky, Keller, Eichendorff, Gotthelf, not for Rilke
4 January 1937
St. Gallen--Speicher--Trogen . . . Robert in Zurich, Berlin, and Bern . . . von Kotzebue, Keller, Stifter
27 June 1937
St. Gallen--Rehetobel--Heiden--Thal--the Buchberg--Buchen--the Rorschacherberg--Rorschach . . . Robert's nemesis, Hesse . . .Gotthelf . . . C.F.W.
20 December 1937
Robert and the haberdasher . . . second-rank writers
15 April 1938
Robert's 60th birthday . . . Dagmerselen--Lichtensteig--Wil . . . Robert as a servant . . . Biel, Bern, long distance solo walks
23 April 1939
Herisau--Wil--Gossau . . . But drinking? I can only do that with you . . . Robert in Biel
10 September 1940
Hundwil--Stein--Teufen . . . dictators . . . publishers . . . Without love we are lost
21 March 1941
Gais--Teufen . . . Robert's ancestors . . . Max Dauthendey . . . another epic Wanderung . . . music
20 July 1941
Urnäsch--Jakobsbad--Appenzell--Gais--Buehler--St. Gallen . . . Secrets . . . Silence . . . Gotthelf, Goethe, Nietzsche
11 May 1942
Urnäsch--Cable car to Saentis--Appenzell--Herisau . . . mountaintop weather man
28 January 1943
Herisau--St. Gallen--Heilig Kreuz--St. Peter & Paul Game Preserve--the Bodensee--Rorschach--St. Gallen . . . Robert in Biel, Zurich, Berlin
15 April 1943
Robert's 65th birthday . . . His tumor, and his reaction . . . how he spends his time . . . Degersheim--Mogelsberg im Untertoggenburg--Herisau . . . Trouble is the best teacher
16 May 1943
Schwellbrunn--St. Peterzell--Herisau . . . Robert's novels . . . poverty . . . Marlitt
27 July 1943
St. Gallen--St. Margaretten--Au--Heerbrugg--Balgach--Marbach--Altstätten . . . Kafka, and Robert's Prague clients . . . Robert as calligrapher . . . balloon trip with Cassirer . . . Nestroy
19 October 1943
Karl Walser's death, and Robert's reaction . . . bourgeoisie . . . Grüne Heinrich . . . his lack of success . . . The Apprentice . . . mediocre books . . . Seelig's last conversation with Karl Walser
2 January 1944
Hölderlin . . . Bombing German cities . . . Gossau--Arnegg--Hauptwil--Bischofszell . . . Lisa on her deathbed . . . Gift of cheroots . . . Bern, Biel, and drinking . . . Novels v. stories and feuilletons
25 May 1944
Lisa died in Bern on January 7 . . . Winkeln--Bruggen--St. Georgen--St. Gallen . . . Heinrich Zschokke . . . Tolstoy and Dostoevsky . . . Bombing of Berlin and (enforced) simplicity
24 July 1944
Bodensee--Arbon--Rorschach--St. Gallen . . . Dickens, Keller, and Walser . . . Paul Morand . . . Nietzsche . . . Anti-aircraft fire . . . American internees
28 December 1944
Cold days in Herisau and Biel . . . Abtwil--the Wienerberg--St. Gallen . . . The good effects of rationing . . . Allies will have difficulty in Germany, says Robert . . . Robert invited to Poland and Turkey . . .Karl's trip to Moscow . . . quiet, inconspicuous folk
9 April 1945
Speicherschwendi--Rehetobel--St. Gallen . . . Springtime . . . Aerial combat . . . Music to his ears . . . I want to stay with the people and disappear among them
12 August 1945
The atom bomb is invented . . . Gossau--Abtwil . . . Fruitfulness like Eden . . . Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Spitteler, Gotthelf . . . that gemutlich cigar smoker, Churchill
23 September 1945
The patient A.D. . . . Flawil--Gossau . . . The Apprentice and Geschwister Tanner . . . Swiss lit, and Keller, Wohlwend, and Meyer
30 December 1945
Rorschach--the Buchberg--Staad--Castle Greifenstein--Rheineck--St. Gallen . . . the painter Charles Hug . . . Max Slavogt, Count Leopold von Kalckreuth, and Bruno Cassirer, and Walserish failures
17 July 1946
Urnäsch-the Hundwilerhöhe . . . Keller, Hauptmann . . . Laughter or silence
29 December 1946
Niederteufen--Speicher . . . Johann Ulrich Walser . . . Robert and Biel . . . His successes . . . Keller
26 May 1947
Gossau--Oberbüren--Gossau . . . Thomas Mann . . . Ramuz . . . Robert's recollection of on Keyserling . . . Protestant clergy
3 November 1947
Oberberg castle--Abtwil--Engelburg--St. Gallen . . . Sometimes Robert stops and stares, mumbling incomprehensibly . . . the villa in The Apprentice . . . William Penn . . . Zschokke . . . From now on I should only visit on Sundays. On workdays he has a job
4 April 1948
Degersheim . . . Brod, Kafka, and Walser . . . Prague, and Jan Neruda . . . Badger hunting . . . Reading proof for Poetenleben by oil lamp . . . French or German speaker?
23 January 1949
Ernst Zahn . . . Strindberg . . . Gertrud Eysoldt, who Seelig and Walser have both met . . . St. Gallen-the Freudenberg
Good Friday 1949 (15 April)
Degersheim . . . Robert's 71st birthday . . . We're powerless before nature . . . The demonic in an army buddy . . . Angels are not artists . . . Dostoevsky: I think humanity will, bit by bit, become either angels or devils
Bettag 1949 (18 September)
suicide of Caesar von Arx . . . Diderot, translated by Goethe . . . the Toggenburg--the Magdenau convent--Bubental--Flawil
5 February 1950
in the sanitarium he's now sorting and untying string for the Post . . . People are more proud of their vices than of their virtues, especially when they're young
23 July 1950
a gentle air-defense soldier . . . Schwellbrunn . . . Robert takes the side of the North Koreans . . . Seelig relates (but not to us) the death of Heinrich Mann, and the story of the bombing of Dresden as he heard it from Gerhart Hauptmann's widow and her son, Bruno.
6 April 1952
Palm Sunday . . . Rorschach--the Bodensee--Buchen--Wienachten--Tobel--Heiden--Buchen--Rorschach--St. Gallen . . . Robert suspicious . . . C. F. Meyer
Christmas 1952
A rainy Christmas . . . Anna Koch: At the sanitarium they still spoke occasionally about her, whom Robert would not judge . . . Engelberg . . . Rebuilding castles . . . all of Robert's savings have been eaten up by inflation. He has nothing . . . Seelig discovers he has lost a notebook with a great deal of work
1 February 1953
During our last wanderung Robert had observed that the trial of Anna Koch would have been a good subject for Kleist or Dostoyevsky; this chapter is the story of her crime and punishment
12 April 1953
Robert's 75th birthday, public recognition, his reaction . . . Kleist . . . Frau Fönss . . . Stalin's death
30 August 1953
For the first time, Robert gave the impression of an old man with dwindling physical strength . . . Rorschach . . . Max Dauthendey, Frank Wedekind . . . The writing more important than the acting . . . I've found third-rate-staged and acted pieces amusing . . . Oedipus, and Robert's ambiguity
27 December 1953
Fünf Länderblickes--Eggersriet--St. Gallen . . . a fantasy painting that his brother Karl had done, using a photo of Robert as a model . . . manuscript of Theodor lost
Good Friday 1954
Appenzell--Gais . . . Snow and sleet . . . Funeral procession . . . Byron's striking similarities with Raphael . . . Spitteler not an admirer of Robert's
30 September 1954
Seelig's trip to Venice with Max Picard . . . St. Gallen . . . Sons of famous fathers . . . 1895 (or 1896) had been a good year for Robert
Christmas 1954
For women we're rejects. We might find that either good or bad . . . For a change, Robert dresses well . . . To a castle above Herisau . . . von Kleist, Thomas Mann, and Goethe . . . Seelig and the headhunters . . . murderers' choir
Good Friday 1955
Robert hit by bacterial infection of the lungs; recovers, but agrees to leisurely pace . . . House of the Dead a mutual favorite . . . Friedrich Gerstaekker and Jules Verne . . . Christopher Middleton translated Robert's stories Spaziergang and Kleist in Thun into English . . . Dr. Steiner says the condition of his heart is such that strenuous exercise could bring on a heart attack
17 July 1955
Gossau--St. Margarethen--Walzenhausen--Wolfhalden--Rheineck . . . Tolstoy's Resurrection . . . Their Wanderung cut short by symptoms of Robert's affliction
Christmas 1955
St. Gallen . . . Kleist, Zschokke,Wieland . . . Halldor Laxness and the Nobel . . . This is the end of my notes on our shared walks . . .
Christmas 1956
From Christmas 1955: "In the dusk of 25 December 1956 . . . A phone call from the assistant medical director that Robert had been found dead early that afternoon on a snowfield, in the very place where we had spent many wonderful hours on Christmas day, 1954, and Good Friday of 1955."

"Today he's tempted by the Rosenberg, where there is a ruin. He's been there before . . . a poet, for whom the winter with its gentle, merry snowfall was an enchantment, a real poet, who longed like a child for a world of rest and purity and love."