From Guide to the “Good” Life (1926): It’s common Austrian wisdom that the more one reads and thinks, the sicker and uglier the body becomes. Mountaineering, river bathing, shooting, skiing, and horseback riding can reverse the process if these activities are done regularly before the subject reaches 35. After that, the subject cannot reverse the corporeally […]
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This was written in Meingast’s distinctive script next to Luther’s hymn “Ein neues Lied wir heben an” in a hymnal owned by the University of Vienna: “Suum cuique: One piece of the quarried granite goes to the capstone above and another to the foundation underground. The virtue of the stone is apparent in both.”
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By all accounts, Meingast was fond of animals. In 1910 or 1911, he adopted two kittens. Dr. Marie de Besombes (a librarian at the BNF) thinks there’s a good chance that the curious cats in this photo are Meingast’s cats Hamilcar and Hasdrubal. de Besombes also said that Meingast had some pet roosters as a teenager (he kept them […]
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This short poem was composed after Meingast rode the new steam tram in Vienna in 1887: Too close and too many and there is no near handle/and we know all of it will/lurch soon and our usual unthought/equilibrium will flop to an uneasy spread of weight. I lean against this door despite/ the sign and […]
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