"And please do not try to make my acquaintance; I would disappoint you both outwardly and in demeanor; the best that I am and have, I give you anyway... in my books." With this admonition to the reader, Arno Schmidt begins his collection of fictional letters, among which the most furious is addressed to the unfortunate author of a botched translation of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, the tenderest and most grateful is dedicated to Johann Gottfried Schnabel, the author of The Island of Felsenburg, and is crowned by the story The Strangers - while the briefest is directed to Klopstock, with the laconic and devastating words: "Dear Sir! Herewith returning the Messiah. Yours, Arno Schmidt." Created in the years 1948 and 1949, Arno Schmidt's "second book" after Leviathan was only published 40 years later, as a first publication from his estate.