Letter from Edward Renouf to Anny Schey von Koromla

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Bastei

31 March 1931

Dear Annerl!

Must I tame my impatience? I’m very aware that you’re not reachable by telephone and that I can’t spend every moment waiting for the side door to open – and yet it’s some comfort to know that you’re in the place that’s best for you – that you’re now [illegible] dozing in the sunshine, content in the sunshine. Hopefully the postman will have brought a letter from you this evening. I haven’t been home since five o’clock.

The American came to take me into town today so I could help him with his German when he couldn’t manage on his own. We went to see an estate agent about his apartment (I’ll never hear the end of this sort of ‘business’) and a doctor because he and his wife don’t want their coming child (don’t tell a soul!). It all took a very long time. Then I went to the Bastei with them, sang American songs and ate fried potatoes. I’m now sitting with them in their lovely little living room. He’s reading, she’s writing (like me). But there’s no desk or bureau, and I don’t have a proper surface to write on. Hopefully you can read this hasty scrawl.

I finished ‘Arrowsmith’ and read a couple of essays on psychology, wrote to mama and Aunt Kitty, now I’m totally immersed in the world of the microbe hunters. Can you imagine? I’m already wishing I had a laboratory, a microscope, [infusers]. I want to investigate every little corner of the world – fantastic! This book’s giving me the energy I need for all sorts of work. It was liberating enough to see the path laid out in ‘Arrowsmith’. Liberating and at the same time compelling as to the where and the what. And what about the lives of those amazing explorers?! I can now see why, having read this stuff, you were concerned about what I was doing with my life and had higher ambitions for me. With role models like these, even I start welling up with ambition and ability and enterprise. I swear I won’t disappoint you!

When it’s sunny I spend my time in the lovely new lounger that my beloved easter bunny brought me. She’ll have to lie in it herself when she comes back from Italy. For breakfast I’m still drinking cacao from the easter bunny and eating from the endless box of edibles. The windows are open day and night – why would I need to bathe or put the heating on? The flowers and me (both the tulips and the golden shower, the yellow ones) are flourishing in the rather spartan cold air. As soon as I’ve finished the Microbe Hunters I’ll get to work, head, heart and hand, so I can show off to my Annie with all the force and assurance of a Louis Pasteur. Author, scientist – they’ll have to be united in me. There’s a lot to do, and I want to do my bit – be a man. Byrd at the South Pole – like you said, it’s the same thing – and these microbe hunters who made their voyages of discovery through microscopes. I don’t want to be anything less than that. Confidence, courage, passion, an impatient urge to work patiently. First, a single, all-encompassing idea upon which to build everything else. Get to it, man!

Write me what you’re thinking and dreaming, what’s happening, what you’re looking at, what you’re painting – !

Wholly yours,

Etl

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