Zamenhof's health had been deteriorating for years and even in 1911 he is reported as having told his other brother, Leon, that every international conference he attended was shortening his life by several years. But the remedy prescribed by doctors was the kind of medicine that Zamenhof was not prepared to swallow. It was "a long period of calm and rest."
It is not immediately obvious or easy to understand that although Zamenhof spent almost 15 years developing his International Language, once he had published it and it was accepted by thousands of people, his work, far from being over, had only just been done. During the period of time from his early teens until 1887, Zamenhof's role was similar to that of an artist or an inventor. Lonely work, as we have discussed, difficult work, attempted unsuccessfully by hundreds of people before and since, but nevertheless rewarding, stimulating and sustaining.
After 1887, however, Zamenhof suddenly found himself with a wide range of heavy responsibilities. Now he was required to be a teacher, a journalist, a lecturer, an organizer, and a translator. He never shirked any of these time-consuming responsibilities but he did not neglect his medical practice either. The enormous amount of extra work which Zamenhof undertook was carried out at night, after a long day with his patients and produced no financial rewards.
Furthermore, he had to fulfill all of those roles to the very highest level of excellence. All of his letters (and there were a huge number!), all of his speeches, all of his articles and all of his books had to be exemplary. Nothing but scrupulous accuracy, and the most carefully expressed explanations to written enquiries would do. His letters were lengthy and painstaking; his opening speeches to the international conferences even more so.
So, to fully appreciate Zamenhof's achievement, it is necessary to understand that not only did he produce a linguistic prototype, he also laid the foundations of a literature in all its forms - epic and lyrical poetry, dramatic verse, modern prose - and, in doing so, he ensured that the project which he began as a schoolboy would develop into a living language, used throughout the world and capable of expressing the most sublime thoughts of the human mind.
