Robert Walser

Swiss writer Robert Walser was born in 1878. He wrote many novels and essays, and over a thousand short stories in his native German language. He also worked several different kinds of jobs, including bank clerk, butler, and  inventor’s assistant to help support himself as a writer. In the late 1920s, he began to suffer from mental health issues, which were ultimately diagnosed by his brother as catatonic schizophrenia, a diagnosis that today is much disputed. He died of a heart attack in 1956.


Walser was relatively well known in his time, and his writing was admired by writers such as Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, and Walter Benjamin. His critical acclaim has increased significantly after his death. A number of Walser’s works have been recently published or reissued in translation, including Looking at Pictures (2021), Little Snow Landscape (2021), Speaking to the Rose (2016), Jakob von Gunten (2014), The Walk (2013), and Berlin Stories (2012). Walser composted in an exceptionally tiny handwritten script, demonstrated in the color illustrations, transcriptions, and translations of over two dozen short pieces in The Microscripts (2010).