A first thought on Christmas morning will likely ever be of Robert Walser in the snow, his solitary passing rendered by chance literary.
Walser died of a heart attack on Christmas day 1956 whilst on a customary lone walk near the asylum in Herisau where he had been residing for many years - his death resembling the death of one of the characters in his first novel "The Tanners".
'How noble a grave he chose for himself. His resting place lies amid splendid green snow-covered firs. I shall not report this to anyone. Nature gazes down upon her dead man, the stars are quietly singing at his head and the night birds are squawking -- this is the best music for a person who no longer feels or hears.'
- Robert Walser (The Tanners, 1907).
Picture: "Walser Looking up a Snowy Slope" by Billy Childish (2010?)
A Last Walk in the Snow.
Walser died of a heart attack on Christmas day 1956 whilst on a customary lone walk near the asylum in Herisau where he had been residing for many years - his death resembling the death of one of the characters in his first novel "The Tanners".
'How noble a grave he chose for himself. His resting place lies amid splendid green snow-covered firs. I shall not report this to anyone. Nature gazes down upon her dead man, the stars are quietly singing at his head and the night birds are squawking -- this is the best music for a person who no longer feels or hears.'
- Robert Walser (The Tanners, 1907).
Picture: "Walser Looking up a Snowy Slope" by Billy Childish (2010?)
A Last Walk in the Snow.
