Of walking in ice (Carl Hanser, 1978; Minnesota UP, 2015) [diary Nov 23 to Dec 14, 1974]

The diary of the German film director Werner Herzog, published in 1978. The diary was written and takes place between November 23 and December 14, 1974. In the foreword, Herzog says that he received a call from a friend in Paris, informing him that his close friend, the German film historian Lotte H. Eisner, was ill and dying.Herzog was determined to prevent this, and believed that an act of walking would keep Eisner from death. He took a jacket, a compass and a duffel bag of the barest essentials and, wearing a pair of new boots, set off on a three-week pilgrimage from Munich to Paris through the deep chill and snowstorms of winter. In late November 1974, filmmaker Werner Herzog received a phone call from Paris delivering some terrible news. German film historian, mentor, and close friend Lotte Eisner was seriously ill and dying. Herzog was determined to prevent this and believed that an act of walking would keep Eisner from death. He took a jacket, a compass, and a duffel bag of the barest essentials, and wearing a pair of new boots, set off on a three-week pilgrimage from Munich to Paris through the deep chill and snowstorms of winter. Of Walking in Ice is Herzog’s beautifully written, much-admired, yet often-overlooked diary account of that journey. Herzog documents everything he saw and felt on his quest to his friend’s bedside, from poetic descriptions of the frozen landscape and harsh weather conditions to the necessity of finding shelter in vacant or abandoned houses and the intense loneliness of his solo excursion. Includes, for the first time, Werner Herzog’s 1982 “Tribute to Lotte Eisner” upon her receipt of the Helmut Käutner Prize ** memoirs; film