Posted by Leszek Adamczyk on November 14, 2013 at
5:50 am
Melchior Wańkowicz – Poland’s Master of the Written Word
By Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm
Lexington Books, 2013
By Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm
Lexington Books, 2013
I was eleven years old when I
witnessed a lively and rather agitated conversation that my parents had during
supper. With a lot of excitement in her voice my mother recounted how she went
to a bookstore after work and came across a famous Polish writer, Melchior
Wańkowicz, who had just been released from prison by the communist regime in
Poland.
Bookstores in Poland have always
been and still are full of readers and the writer was literally encircled by them
as soon as he entered the bookstore. Everybody wanted to shake his hand, ask a
question or just look at him from a close distance.
I sensed that there was something
unusual about this encounter and I could appreciate the thrill of meeting a
famous writer but it took me a couple more years to fully comprehend the
magnitude of arresting and putting on trial one of the most prominent and most
popular contemporary Polish writers just for sending abroad a paper –
“Speech-Project” – that was then broadcast by Radio Free Europe. The paper
contained material that in the eyes of the communist regime slandered social
and political relations in Poland. The “Speech Project” prepared by Wańkowicz
followed “Letter 34,” a protest signed by thirty four writers (including
Wańkowicz) against a government decision to limit the amount of paper allotted
for printing books and newspapers. (At that time book production in Poland was
already at the lowest level among the socialist countries.)
The trial of Melchior Wańkowicz became
a cause célèbre. Eleven years after the death of Stalin, arresting and
prosecuting a seventy-two-year old prominent Polish writer and public favorite
was highly odd practice, even by the communist standards of justice. Virtually
all western newspapers, including Time Magazine, published extensive commentary
about the regime’s ridiculous prosecution of Wańkowicz.
The defense called some renowned and
respected Polish writers and intellectuals as witnesses. Alas, one of them,
Kazimierz Kozniewski, whom Wańkowicz considered a close friend since before the
war, also a friend of the writer’s two daughters, testified against him.
Kozniewski was not only a traitor but also a secret agent and one of the most
devoted employees of the Security Office and then Security Service in the
history of Communist Poland.
The trial lasted three days and
ended with a sentence of three years in prison. Facing harsh criticism in
Poland and abroad and numerous interventions by famous writers and
intellectuals as well as prominent politicians such as Robert Kennedy, the
communist regime in Warsaw backed off and freed Wańkowicz.
Obviously, when I listened to my
parents’ conversation about the writer, forty years ago, a lot of these facts
were unknown since the trial was held in camera and only very general
information was provided to the public by the Polish mass media. Many years
after Wańkowicz’s death, new evidence and testimonies began emerging and thanks
to meticulous work and painstaking efforts by the independent scholar and writer
Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm, both Polish and English readers can now appreciate
the most recent book about one of Poland’s greatest writers.
Published by Lexington Books, Melchior Wańkowicz
– Poland’s Master of the Written Word, is not merely a well documented
account of Wańkowicz’s struggle with communist justice system.
(Ziolkowska-Bohem had already written a separate book on this subject in 1990
available in Polish only.) It is a captivating although somehow eclectic
portrait of a great humanist with a pragmatic approach to life, a prolific hard
working writer, bon vivant, thinker, husband, father and most of all a fabulous
reporter and storyteller.
The book is not, however, a
biography. Each of its eleven chapters can be read separately. I devoured it in
no time as I did almost all of Wańkowicz’s books. Yet, when the editors of CR asked me if I could write a review of
Ziolkowska-Boehm’s “Poland’s Master of the Written Word” I initially hesitated.
Some time ago, while teaching a course, “Introduction to Polish Studies,” at
McGill University I asked students (some of them of Polish origin) if they had
read or at least heard of the most famous Polish writers: Stanisław Lem,
Sławomir Mrozek or Nobel Prize laureates Henryk Sienkiewicz and Władysław
Reymont whose books were translated into most modern languages and published in
many countries, the answers were not very encouraging.
I decided to read some of
Wańkowicz’s books again before sharing my humble opinion with readers of CR on Ziolkowska-Boehm’s latest work and try to
assess if the contemporary generation of Polish literature aficionados could
relate to them. I firmly believe that both young and older readers would find
most of Wańkowicz’s works not only fascinating but probably more appealing
(particularly to the Polish diaspora in the USA and Canada), than the books of
his famous predecessors.
It suffice to open “Tworzywo”
(“Matter”) – Wańkowicz’s reportage from Canada where he travelled 18,000 miles
to write stories about Polish immigrants who succeeded in their new country
despite numerous setbacks, severe hardship and misery. It almost reads like a
fiction but as most of his writings, “Tworzywo” is based on facts. As
Ziolkowska-Boehm writes in Poland’s Master of Written Word: “Tworzywo” includes
many real events, statistical data, and human histories; in this book, even the
cited letters of one protagonist – Bombik – are authentic. We find real
conversations, facts, and people at every step.
Aleksandra-Ziolkowska-Boehm is an
unrivalled connoisseur of Wańkowicz’s works. During the last two years of the
writer’s life she was his secretary and ultimately became his friend and
associate. She had unlimited access to his personal archives but also the
privilege to participate in his private everyday life. She took full advantage
of this extremely rare opportunity that she now shares with us in her excellent
book full of interesting, sometimes hilarious sometimes heartbreaking details
about Wańkowicz’s life, his entourage and, last but not least, about the origin
of some his works.
Here is one example, explaining
where the title of my favourite Wańkowicz book comes from: “He also gave the
book a final title “La Fontaine’s Carafe.” He chose it to emphasize the
diversity and objectivism of his views and opinions. The title came from an
anecdote. La Fontaine was once asked to settle a dispute arisen among the
revelers gathered in the inn. In the middle of the table there stood a crystal
decanter with wine. Sunrays were coming through the window and reflecting off
the carafe. One of the revelers said they were reflected red. Another denied,
saying they were blue. The third one said they were pink. When asked, La
Fontaine went around the table and said that each of the men was right:
depending on the side you were looking from, as the sun refracted in the
carafe, it showed different colors. What was most important, as he said, was to
see all the colors together, to understand there wasn’t just one.”
Melchior Wańkowicz – Poland’s Master
of the Written Word comes at a good time. The author of
Battle of Monte Cassino was one of the most famous Polish writers in the last
century. I am convinced that thanks to Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm latest book,
Melchior Wańkowicz will always have plenty of readers.
CR
Leszek Adamczyk worked as a journalist in Polish Radio and TV in the Section of Literature and Culture covering cultural events in Poland and abroad, writing plays for radio-theater, book reviews and essays. After emigrating to Canada, he worked as translator for the Government of Canada, as a lecturer (language instructor) at McGill University, and as a correspondent for the Warsaw daily " Życie." He currently works for the Government of Québec.
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