Synchronicity and luck often seem to go hand-in-hand. That was certainly the case for Hermann Sudermann (1857-1928) , a German dramatist and novelist whose plays were the basis for more than 35 films in the twentieth century.
In the early days of his career, Sudermann earned his living by submitting weekly installments of his novels to a newspaper in Berlin. But the newspaper editor was apparently worried that if something happened to Sudermann before he finished a novel, his readers would be left hanging in midair. So one day he informed Sudermann that their arrangement was changing. From here on in, the young novelist would have to turn in the entire book before the chapters were published.
Sudermann wasn’t happy about the change – too long between paychecks! But there wasn’t much he could do about it except start writing. He sequestered himself on the family farm and wrote Frau Sorg, about a young man torn between his love for a woman and his devotion to his father. When the novel was finished, Sudermann set out to deliver the manuscript to the newspaper.
He supposedly put the manuscript in his overcoat pocket. This part strikes me as somewhat odd, but perhaps manuscripts back then were written on paper of a smaller size than today’s standard of 8.5X11 inches. He boarded a train for Berlin and in Insterburg, where he was due to change trains, he encountered some old friends. Instead of changing trains, they hit the local watering holes.
The next morning, Sudermann woke in Berlin, but couldn’t remember anything that had happened. Worse than the hangover he probably had was that the manuscript was no longer in his overcoat pocket, which meant he wasn’t going to be paid. Depressed, he headed back to the farm and, that evening, again found himself at Insterburg, waiting for the train to Berlin, which wasn’t due to arrive until morning. He found a place to stay for the night, then hit the local bars again.
At some point, he stopped at a delicatessen and ordered a herring. As was customary in those days, the herring was wrapped in scrap paper and Sudermann was already eating when he recognized the handwriting on the paper as his own. It was a page from his lost manuscript. Elated, he got the rest of the deli’s wrapping paper and recovered most of his novel.
The odds in this story are significant. If Sudermann hadn’t gotten lodging for the night, if he hadn’t stopped at the deli for that herring, if he’d been too drunk to recognize his own handwriting, things would have turned out much differently.
***
Then there is something darkly symbolic and trickster-like about finding your novel pages put to use wrapping fish. Back when I was a newspaper reporter, we used to be proud of getting our stories on the front page stories, but we conceded that the next day they would under someone’s kitty litter. – R
***
Then there is something darkly symbolic and trickster-like about finding your novel pages put to use wrapping fish. Back when I was a newspaper reporter, we used to be proud of getting our stories on the front page stories, but we conceded that the next day they would under someone’s kitty litter. – R
Great tale, extremely well told. It was fascinating even throughout the second time of reading.
What a great story.
Maybe this was where the word "paperback" originated from ?
…but then again,that's maybe just another red herring.-)
hmmmm, dpage – i just jotted down at 6:15pm eastern the very same thing! 😉 especially annoying as i was trying to catch a segment of ancestry's "who do you think you are" on the laptop and kept having trouble hearing it!
Wonderful story! I love this one.
@ empaths ~ my symptoms are all but gone. Just some lingering fatique.
My left ear started ringing at3:19 pm PDT.
wv= gongsboa lol!
ok, cj, i just left the dot graph myself –
wv is trophyt –
Just a non-related heads-up…I've been keeping an eye on the Dot, for some reason I can't explain. It's shifting colors today and is now moving into orange from yellow.
Yesterday it became a vivid red-orange and all of the empaths were having a heck of a day. I've not turned on the TV at all, but am expoeriencing a sense I need to go turn on the national and international news, It is now 3:15pm EST, Saturday. WV" "sallat"
Great story! Reminds me of the funny way all our lives mostly occur because of chance intersections. I like the way it also seems to have a sub-plot about not getting too inflated with self-importance sometimes.
A great story. As we used to say in England: Yesterdays's news is tomorrow's fish and chips wrapping – or words to that effect.
I guess a lot of our lives are full of ifs: If we had done this and not that how different our lives would be.
This is a fascinating story! I love these types of stories. It helps us see the "Great Mystery" involved in our lives.
i LOVE this story that is so full of all the "if's" – my sister, who is a theatre' director, had told me this story but i had forgotten it till this neat post of it! just so many tiny snippets from the universe had to fall into place in the precise mini-second of time for this all to have come to pass –