Karl & Anita

En compagnie d’Anita Loos, nous sommes de retour à Berlin, une occasion surprise de retrouver Karl Arnold à qui elle écrit :

Berlin, (September 1930)

A thousends thanks for the reproductions — I enjoyed looking over them enormously — even aside from my personal interest in them, as I have long been a great admirer of your work.

However, I wish to select some examples to send my publisher very carefully as he is a very moderate capitalistic 100% American and most of your drawings would frighten him to death. My own work is far from being either “sweet” or optimistic — but, so far, no one in America has discoverd the fact and my books are supposed to be quite genteel — and the satire of the drawings, naturally, must be slightly in the same tone.

I feel that the work I submit to him must be of the same general character as my book — and am taking the liberty to select a few of your drawings to send to him. There is no great rush about the work — as the book cannot be published until next summer.

As to my coming to Munich — I would much prefer to come later, after I have heard from the publisher, and know his ideas on the matter. So I am going to delay my return to Munich until the end of October. By that time I shall also have finished the manuscript, and we can talk things over completely.

Karl Arnold lui répondit-il par ce clin d’œil publié le 6 octobre 1930 dans le Simplicissimus ?

Dans le numéro suivant, Anita Loos faisait l'objet d'un entrefilet dans la rubrique littéraire :

Anita Loos, die amerikanische Schriftstellerin, unterhielt sich einmal mit Mencken über die amerikanische Frau.

«Ich finde», sagt Mencken, «äußerst wenig Qualitäten in der Durchschnittsamerikanerin.»

«Zwei Qualitätent hat jede Durchschnittsamerikanerin bestimmt», sagte Anita Loos. «Erstens nämlich ihre Schönheit und zweitens ihre Dummheit.»

«Wieso ist Dummheit eine Qualität ?»

«Nun, die Schönheit brauchen wir, damit die Männer uns lieben. Und die Dummheit brauchen wir, damit wir imstande sind, die Männer zu lieben…»

Déjà, le 13 juin 1927, Anita Loos apparaissait dans le Simplicissimus.