ERUDITE, DIPLOMAT, WRITER, GENTLEMAN... Ivo Andrić was the last male descendant of an old Sarajevo family. Erudite, intellectual, edu- cated in the achievements of classical Europe- an art, connoisseur of its history, philosophy and poetry; a storyteller, thinker and gen- tleman in his manners and dealings, Andrić outgrew his career as a civil servant and his own literary creation. And in both fields he re- ached the highest achievements – in literatu- re he received the world’s most valuable award from Stockholm, in diplomacy he received the highest diplomatic rank of the Kingdom of Yu- goslavia, during a time when Europe and the world grew sick from civilisation’s defeat. ERUDITA, DIPLOMATA, PISAC, GOSPODIN… Ivo Andrić bio je poslednji muški potomak stare sarajevske porodice. Erudita, intelek- tualac obrazovan na tekovinama klasič- ne evropske umetnosti, poznavalac njene istorije, filozofije i poezije, pripovedač, mi- slilac, gospodin u ophođenju i manirima, Andrić je nadrastao i svoju službeničku ka- rijeru i sopstvenu književnu tvorevinu. I u jednoj i u drugoj oblasti dostigao je najviše domete – u književnosti najvrednije svet- sko priznanje iz Stokholma, u diplomatiji najviši diplomatski čin Kraljevine Jugoslavi- je, u vreme koje je za Evropu i svet izraslo u bolan civilizacijski poraz. one of the cities that didn’t suit his deli- cate health at all. Damp air, gloomy, windy winter days, along with great expensive- ness that he complained about, all served to make Andrić’s days in Trieste unbeara- ble: “My ink froze from “wrinkles” and re- sentment. I’ve suffered enough in these two months. My doctor advised me to im- mediately leave Trieste. Fortunately, I will be transferred to Graz” – wrote Andrić on 22nd January 1923. Living at Merangasse 24 in Graz, not far from the Consulate that was located at Schumanngasse 14, Andrić concentrated on working on his doctoral thesis. On the wall of the house at Merangasse 24, a me- morial plaque was unveiled on 9th October 2008 with an inscription in German read- ing:“In this house, from 1923 to 1924, dur- ing his studies at Karl Franzens University in Graz, lived the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature Ivo Andrić (Travnik, 1892 - Bel- grade 1975). Andrić also spent part of his life in Bucharest. Whilst in this city he read and wrote a lot, and learned Romanian. He al- so went to classical music concerts, to fill the gap on lonely evenings: “I live quiet-
St. Jacques. Marseille looked to him like a large town, interesting, but cold, calculat- ed and vulgar. In Andric’s eyes that was an unattractive port city, through which a cold wind blows constantly, which he said must have been from some distant country where boredom reigns. However, its major advan- tage – the sea: It has the sea, and that means a lot – he wrote to Alaupović. Andrić read a lot while in Marseilles, but wrote only a little, visited bookshops and bought books, visited restaurants and attended concerts, listened to Iturbija and Kortoa, but other than official links that he found neither interesting nor pleasant, he didn’t have any kind of company and felt unusually lonely.
PASSION, LOVE AND WALL THE PAIN OF PARIS
In early January 1928, Andrić was ap- pointed to the Royal Consulate General in Paris. Describing the situation in him and his civil servant intrigue, he wrote briefly: “Here the lamp hates the lamp”. He used his relocation to Paris in order to search for material that would, years later, become the backbone of the historical novel “The Time of the Consuls”. In the mornings he worked in the National Library, in the af- ternoons he was at the Archives of the MFA, where he examined three hardcover vol- umes with over 500 reports of Pierre David, Travnik Consul (1806-1814). From one note we learn that Andrić also felt very lonely in Paris: “Nowhere on earth, not in any forest nor in any desert, have I felt so far away from people, and everything that I know and am familiar with, as in the small café in one suburb of Paris where I came one win- ter and where grizzled citizens play piketa, while a waiter leans against a pillar dozing.” During solitary walks along the quay- side on either side of the Seine, Andrić care- fully watched life around him, getting to know the mentality, habits and customs of the French.“Nowhere in the world, it seems to me, do people part with so much pain and hug with as much zeal when depart- ing as at the stations of Paris. You should see young couples with such pagan sin- cerity inhaling the breath of one another and passing their fingers for a last time over foreheads, eyes, mouths and throats. And in all of that there is nothing that is either shameful or excessive or ridiculous. Every- one respectfully watches and passes such a couple and everyone seeks to show atten- tion to a woman with red eyes and a half- open mouth who remains on the platform and still waves helplessly with an arm that is as though broken – he wrote in one of his many notes.
Fragmenti rukopisa - „Travnička hronika”, „Gospođica”, „Na Drini ćuprija” Fragments of the scripts for “The Days of the Consuls“, “The Young Lady“, ” The Bridge on the Drina”
ly, I observe the world and this interesting country ... And while around me everything boils from pleasure, politics, millions, petro- leum and scandals, I write at a distance, one Bosnian story...”. Andrić travelled to Marseille in 1926, where he had again be led by the foreign service. This time, during October he was appointed vice consul of the Consulate Gen- eral of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
LONELY AND COLD WINDS OF MARSEILLE
He wrote to his professor, benefactor and friend, Dr Tugomir Alaupović, from the south of France: “[...] Here I’m completely alone. Apart from official links, which are neither interesting nor pleasant, I have no company. By day I am in the office, and in the evening I read everything that comes into my hands...”. His only pastimes were books and clas- sical music concerts. During his first days in Marseille, while staying at a hotel, An- drić intensively sought an apartment and found a beautiful and clean, but damned- ly expensive apartment at number 51 Rue
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