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Autodidacts
- University of Wisconsin Press
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44 Auto did acts Hav ing left the Bal kans in their youth, one to Con stan tin o ple, the other to Paris, they had many pas sions, like all young peo ple, but it was their love of books that re mained most en graved upon them. Al though they had both stud ied at great uni ver sities, one at the Uni ver sity of Con stan tin o ple, the other at the Sor bonne, they both still had much to learn; they re mained great auto did acts, and they re mained for ever fas ci nated by how time gath ered in li brar ies, in re li gious build ings, in bridges. But, in their im pov er ished Bal kans, noth ing re mained eter nal—no bridge, no place of wor ship, no li brary. In their rest less Bal kans it was their books that could be car ried along, that could en dure, that could come to life. They be lieved that the full ness of life, which they them selves for ever lacked, rested in their books. The peo ple in the Bal kans never had the op por tu nity to heal them selves: just as one war ended, an other war ap proached. Just when they be came ac cus tomed to com mu ni cat ing in one lan guage, an other came along. It was a hell ish sit u a tion. Peo ple viewed our father and Mr. K., with their books, as some sort of out dated mis sion ar ies, as men with a dif fer ent turn of mind; no one could under stand their great love of books. Those con founded books were a source of under stand ing or mis under stand ing. My father and Mr. K. be lieved that peo ple would under stand them and would ac cept their love of books. Each worked his own li brary, his own lit tle part of the world, his Gar den of Eden. At the same time, they built their own small Tow ers of Babel with se cret walls made of those books that fate had as signed to them at that first turn, at all turns. The un cer tainty that they might not fully suc ceed in shap ing their li brar ies ate away at them. 45 These self-taught men, these Don Quix otes of the Bal kans, came here at the wrong time. They had great and ten der hearts; they had within them the heart of all books. ...