W. G. Sebald called Robert Walser “a clairvoyant of the small,” and nowhere is the phrase more apt than in his “microscripts.” Robert Walser wrote many of his manuscripts in a highly enigmatic, shrunken-down form. These narrow strips of paper (many of them written during his hospitalization in the Waldau sanatorium) covered with tiny ant-like markings only a millimeter or two high, came to light only after the author’s death in 1956. At first considered a secret code, the microscripts were eventually discovered to be a radically miniaturized form of a German script: a whole story could fit on the back of a business card.

Selected from the six-volume German transcriptions from the original microscripts, these 25 short pieces are gathered in this gorgeously illustrated co-publication with the Christine Burgin Gallery. Each microscript is reproduced in full color in its original form: the detached cover of a trashy crime novel, a disappointing letter, a receipt of payment. Sometimes Walser used the pages of small tear-off calendars (but only after cutting them lengthwise and filling up each half with text). Schnapps, rotten husbands, small town life, the radio, pigs (and how none of us can deny being one), jealousy, Van Gogh and marriage proposals are some of Walser’s subjects. These texts take strength from Walser’s motto: “To be small and to stay small.” 65 full-color illustrations

Afterword by Walter Benjamin

Swiss writer Robert Walser (1878-1956), one of the major European writers of the early twentieth century, worked as a bank clerk, a butler in a castle, and an inventor's assistant before writing as many as seven novels and more than a thousand stories. Forcibly hospitalized in 1933 with a now much disputed diagnosis of schizophrenia, he spent the final twenty-three years of his life in an institution.

Prize-wining translator Susan Bernofsky is now at work on a biography of Robert Walser.

罗伯特·瓦尔泽(Robert Walser，1878～1956) 瑞士作家。父亲是书籍装订工。1892年起先后从事过银行和保险公司职员、科学家助手、缝纫机厂职员和家庭佣人等多种职业，同时进行文学创作。1898年开始发表诗歌。1905年去柏林专事写作。1913年后返回故乡隐居，1920至1929年先后在伯尔尼档案馆和地产公司任职，后患精神病，几度试图自杀。1929年被送入瓦尔道精神病疗养病，1933年转入黑里绍的精神病院，1956年去世。瓦尔泽从30年代初期起，在文坛上便被人遗忘。第二次世界大战后，他的作品中寓意、朦胧的特点又引起批评家注意，被称为奥地利作家卡夫卡的先驱。他的作品多选择受压抑的小人物的经历作为题材，以表现人的个性在现代资本主义社会中遭受蹂躏的问题。他的作品没有贯穿始终的完整故事，只有孤立的、互不联系的情节和大量的气氛渲染。他的3部重要小说都带有自传性。《丹诺兄妹》(1907)的主人公西蒙·丹诺，从事过多种职业，到处都无法站稳脚跟。《助手》(1907)表现约塞夫·马蒂在给一个工程师当助手的半年时间里所看到的资产阶级家庭的虚伪、堕落，以及他自己作为局外人的种种感受。《雅科布·封·贡滕》(1908)以日记的形式，描写一个孤儿院的孩子在各种不合理的规章制度下个性发展受到的压抑。这个孤儿院就是现代资本主义社会的象征。这些作品具有同情下层人民、反对资本主义制度的倾向。

他的其他作品还有《诗集》(1909)、长篇小说《玫瑰》(1924)，以及《散步》（1917）、《诗人的生活》(1918)等