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Lot 74
"BROADCAST TO PRAGUE": JOHN STEINBECK REIMAGINES THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK. STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. Autograph Manuscript titled "Broadcast to Prague / Good Socialist Citizen Schweik," 5 pp, legal folio, n.p., [1953], in pencil on yellow foolscap,
25 October 2023, 14:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$3,200 inc. premium
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"BROADCAST TO PRAGUE": JOHN STEINBECK REIMAGINES THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK.
STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. Autograph Manuscript titled "Broadcast to Prague / Good Socialist Citizen Schweik," 5 pp, legal folio, n.p., [1953], in pencil on yellow foolscap, perforation to upper left affecting lines 1-2 of each page, lower left corners creased, toning at edges.
Steinbeck riffs on Jaroslav Hasek's novel The Good Solder Svejk, an epic anti-war, anti-authoritarian six-part comic novel first published in 1921, with four parts appearing before Hasek's death in 1923, and the final two volumes completed by another author. In the series, Josef Svejk is a middle-aged Czechoslovakian professional dog thief whose enthusiasm for the imperial Austro-Hungary regime leads him to enlist at the outbreak of the Great War. Either through incompetence or perhaps feigned idiocy, Svejk frustrates military command and exposes the corruption and decay in its midst.
In this essay, Steinbeck imagines Svejk, or Schweik as English readers know him, in present day Czechoslovakia, and contrives an absurdist adventure for him: "It is well known that when the Austro Hungarian Empire crumbled, Good Soldier Schweik crumbled with it. Under the Checko-Slovakian Republic Schweik took to brooding—his talent for the ridiculous was wasted. Then foundation of the Socialist People's Republic and the Anschluss with Russia sounded like a trumped in Schweik's ears. He came to life. Here was the chaotic nonsense on which he throve. Instantly he became Good Socialist Citizen Schweik ... Ordered to Moscow, he found himself by typical Schweikian technique in New York City where he set up his office on a bench in Central Park convinced that the Hotel Waldorf Astoria was the Kremlin. After all he couldn't get into either place."
Likely penned following the Czechoslovak monetary reform of June 1953, which saw the value of currency held by the Czech people reduced by as much as 50:1, Steinbeck writes as if he is a reporter (he identifies his dialogue as spoken by "myself") sent to interview Schweik. He meets his subject at the Central Park bench where Schweik has sausages and cheese in one pocket and a stolen chihuahua in the other, which is offered to Steinbeck with, "Would you like to buy a genuine Byla Russian Mastiff—very cheap!"
As Steinbeck tries to get Schweik to talk economics, the latter changes the topic, telling a story about his friend who worked in a watch spring factory until it became a tank factory, "making Stalin tanks run by watch springs. Wind them up. Saves Gasoline." The friend made a fortune, but couldn't spend it because there was nothing to buy: "You see, we were so busy defending the glorious People's Republic that we didn't make anything to defend. People were so rich and so happy that they got to killing themselves or running away over the border." After the monetary reform, Schweik continues, "people didn't have money [and] they had to work harder. And then there were things in the stores but it was all right because nobody could buy them. It all worked out fine." Steinbeck asks, "But isn't that what you say the capitalists do—keep the workers poor so they'll have to work? Schweik regarded me with kindly contempt. 'I told you not to think about it,' he said. 'Thinking will just get you in trouble.'"
Steinbeck riffs on Jaroslav Hasek's novel The Good Solder Svejk, an epic anti-war, anti-authoritarian six-part comic novel first published in 1921, with four parts appearing before Hasek's death in 1923, and the final two volumes completed by another author. In the series, Josef Svejk is a middle-aged Czechoslovakian professional dog thief whose enthusiasm for the imperial Austro-Hungary regime leads him to enlist at the outbreak of the Great War. Either through incompetence or perhaps feigned idiocy, Svejk frustrates military command and exposes the corruption and decay in its midst.
In this essay, Steinbeck imagines Svejk, or Schweik as English readers know him, in present day Czechoslovakia, and contrives an absurdist adventure for him: "It is well known that when the Austro Hungarian Empire crumbled, Good Soldier Schweik crumbled with it. Under the Checko-Slovakian Republic Schweik took to brooding—his talent for the ridiculous was wasted. Then foundation of the Socialist People's Republic and the Anschluss with Russia sounded like a trumped in Schweik's ears. He came to life. Here was the chaotic nonsense on which he throve. Instantly he became Good Socialist Citizen Schweik ... Ordered to Moscow, he found himself by typical Schweikian technique in New York City where he set up his office on a bench in Central Park convinced that the Hotel Waldorf Astoria was the Kremlin. After all he couldn't get into either place."
Likely penned following the Czechoslovak monetary reform of June 1953, which saw the value of currency held by the Czech people reduced by as much as 50:1, Steinbeck writes as if he is a reporter (he identifies his dialogue as spoken by "myself") sent to interview Schweik. He meets his subject at the Central Park bench where Schweik has sausages and cheese in one pocket and a stolen chihuahua in the other, which is offered to Steinbeck with, "Would you like to buy a genuine Byla Russian Mastiff—very cheap!"
As Steinbeck tries to get Schweik to talk economics, the latter changes the topic, telling a story about his friend who worked in a watch spring factory until it became a tank factory, "making Stalin tanks run by watch springs. Wind them up. Saves Gasoline." The friend made a fortune, but couldn't spend it because there was nothing to buy: "You see, we were so busy defending the glorious People's Republic that we didn't make anything to defend. People were so rich and so happy that they got to killing themselves or running away over the border." After the monetary reform, Schweik continues, "people didn't have money [and] they had to work harder. And then there were things in the stores but it was all right because nobody could buy them. It all worked out fine." Steinbeck asks, "But isn't that what you say the capitalists do—keep the workers poor so they'll have to work? Schweik regarded me with kindly contempt. 'I told you not to think about it,' he said. 'Thinking will just get you in trouble.'"