Found in Translation

To the Editors:

I should like to commend Sanford Schwartz for his illuminating and sensitive review of the work of Adolf Wölfli [NYR, May 29], and for his courtesy in citing my translation of Walter Morgenthaler’s classic monograph on the artist. I must, however, offer a small bibliographic correction to that citation, which suggests that I translated the work “from the German.” Unfortunately, I lack the competence for such an effort. Rather, I used as my text an earlier French translation, published as its “Fascicule 2” by the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne. I submitted my English retranslation for approval (and correction) to the late Elka Spoerri, then director of the Wölfli Foundation in Bern, whose collaboration was invaluable at all stages of the work. Her recent passing represents a great loss to all students of Wölfli’s art, and to all who knew her.

Aaron H. Esman, M.D.
New York City