Bewildering Stories introduces and welcomes...

Friedrich Wallisch

Friedrich Wallisch was born in Austria-Hungary in 1890 and died in Vienna in 1969. Although he earned a medical degree, he never practiced medicine. Instead, he founded a publishing house in Vienna that issued general fiction and non-fiction. He also wrote carefully plotted novels.

“The Portrait of Martina” celebrates the power of art by postulating how a famous artist might create a portrait that could reunite youthful lovers who have become separated over time. Wallisch does seem to acknowledge that art would have to exert an almost magical influence over reality in order to overcome economic necessity. For that reason, he chooses his artist quite carefully.

Friedrich Wallisch’s bio sketch can be found here.