Confessions of an Author

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

I gave you these pages, my dear friend, on the same day that my doctor had given me the impression I could expect the end. And as the last favor to a friend I had asked you to publish the pages I had given you. That I ultimately did not die is neither your nor my doctor's fault. But meanwhile you have read my honest and forthright confessions and are of the opinion that they should not be withheld from the rest of the world. As a matter of fact, you consider these confessions educational. Of course, I have to smile about that. I have no desire to educate. Not anybody. To educate means to spoil. But I have an idea: to publish these confessions is bound to give a certain beautiful woman a marvelous case of jaundice.

So, please, do publish my diary. Just change the names and leave out something here and there, wherever you think that I might be too easily recognized. The beautiful woman, that harridan, will recognize me well enough … and that suits me just fine.