Sunday, 23 December 2012


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.

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