From The Man (re the relationship between Walter and Clarisse): Actually, she owed him a lot. It was he who had brought the news that there were modern people who insisted on plain, cool furniture and hung pictures on their walls that showed the truth. He read new things to her, Peter Altenberg, little stories of young girls who rolled their hoops in the love-crazed tulip beds and had eyes that shone with sweet innocence like glazed chestnuts. *** Peter Altenberg (9 March 1859, Vienna – 8 January 1919, Vienna) was a writer and poet from Vienna , Austria . He was key to the genesis of early modernism in the city. Biography He was born Richard Engländer on 9 March 1859. The nom de plume, "Altenberg", came from a small town on the Danube River . Allegedly, he chose the "Peter" to honor a young girl whom he remembered as an unrequited love (it had been her nickname). Although he grew up in a middle class Jewish family, Altenberg eventually separated h...
