Dear Freud’s Butcherites Friends of Freud’s Butcher,
As you may have noticed — at least I hope so — I haven’t been around much lately. The short version of the reason: I’m not a very good multitasker.
For many years, I’ve had a travel memoir on my back burner. And I finally decided to finish it and publish it after raising the money to do so through crowdfunding, a Kickstarter campaign.
And here it is, live:
My original goal here was to write a book about my mother’s family, the Kornmehls. After all, their milieu, or at least one aspect of it, was well documented. My great uncle Siegmund’s butcher shop shared an address with the household of Sigmund Freud, 19 Berggasse, for 44 years. And there’s be no dearth of ink spent on that guy.
But after several years of blogging and a trip to Vienna, I realized what I really wanted to do was re-create the butcher shop in situ — at the site that is now the Sigmund Freud Museum and where the shop now serves as an art gallery. That project showed great promise for a bit, but fell apart for reasons I still don’t fully understand. I suspect I got caught up in Viennese Jewish — and museum — politics. If you’ve seen the film “Woman in Gold,” you know what I’m talking about; just substitute cold cuts for Klimt.
So I’m taking a break to concentrate — again — on my memoir. If you like my writing here, I hope you’ll consider coming along with me on that journey, and signing up to get email updates. I’ll still be me, Jewish, irreverent, seeker of good deli. I’ll just be talking more about books in general, and mine in particular.
In any case, I hope you’ll check out the full story of the transition at EdieJarolim.com.
Not really farewell
For better or worse, nothing is ever lost on the internet. I’ll still be checking in on comments, answering any questions you might have. And who knows when the spirit will grab me and I’ll put up a new post.
In the meantime…if I don’t see you over at my new address, shalom and auf Wiedersehen, ’til we meet again,
Edie
As someone who has truly enjoyed Freud’s Butcher (and contributed just a bit), I will miss the blog and your wonderful pieces. I do hope that you are just taking a break and that the Vienna Butcher shop project will materialize and turn your attention again to the wonderful world of family genealogy and documentation.
Timing being everything, your message coincides with the printing of a new Kornmehl family anthology. This will continue the journey of discovery and documentation of family history that you started on Freud’s Butcher.
Many thanks and best of luck!
You contributed more than “just a bit,” Jill and it’s been a pleasure working with you. One of the reasons I feel comfortable taking a long break is that I know you’ve been continuing the work.
I will look forward to the anthology.
Many thanks to you as well! And I’m sure I’ll be seeing you and other newfound family members when I go back East. That’s been one of the real joys — the new extended family that I found here.