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Vienna, October 4, 1899
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear Wilhelm,
Your justification is unassailable; but I had complained without reproach. I know very well that you used to give me a hint of everything, which in fact presented serious difficulties to my understanding. Now you write only about great, very great things; true, you prepared me for their quality and I shall retain a personal relationship to them, even though I cannot stand godfather to them, as you did to the dream book, but rather play at a distance, in Nestroy's words, “first cousin to a world-historical event.” Your triumph will ultimately be in some measure mine, because my judgment followed you and your works; you know that not many others followed at the time.
But in amazement I ask you whether you finished so quickly that your Anonymous and my dream book can simultaneously see the light of day? For I am counting on at most two weeks; you shall have the volume on your desk for your birthday. I only have to read several third proofs, about a third of the whole. Perhaps you did not expect it so early, but unfortunately I have a lot of time. I am so unoccupied that I can take care of each sheet immediately.
You accurately describe the painful feeling of parting with something which has been one's very own. That must have been what made this work so distasteful to me. Now I like it — certainly not much, but a lot better. It was even distressing for me because I had