SOURCE: A review of Das literarische Werk, in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 3735, October 5, 1973, p. 1186.

In the following review, the unsigned critic laments the editorial flaws present in the first volume of Schwitters's Das literarische Werk, which make Schwitters "seem even more obscure, whimsical, and inaccessible than before. "

The literary productions of German Dada have long languished under a cloud. They have never been regarded as a respectable object for scholarly investigation, and in any event it has been virtually impossible to study them in depth because the works have for the most part either been out of print for a generation or more, or are published in minute editions under obscure imprints.

Moreover, while immense scholarly effort continues to be lavished on the uttermost minutiae of Goethe's life and works, precious little serious attention has been devoted to this crucial modern movement and to the considerable technical...