Warsaw-Grodno (auto)biographic triangle. Letters by Leopold Méyet to Wilhelmina Zyndram-Kościałkowska

Abstract

Leopold Méyet’s manuscript legacy consists primarily of letters to Eliza Orzeszkowa written over a period of twenty years. Nonetheless, a body of letters from the Warsaw lawyer to Wilhelmina Zyndram-Kościałkowska dated 1877–1911 and held in the Lithuanian State Historical Archive in Vilnius (F. 1135, ap. 13, no. 507) attracts research attention. The letters, written almost simultaneously with those to Orzeszkowa, constitute the obverse of this account. Méyet conducted his “conversations” with Kościałkowska from the position of a loyal plenipotentiary of the author of Nad Niemnem. A reading of the lawyer’s letters to Kościałkowska reveals a characteristic feature of this relation – the letters are much more intimate than those written to Orzeszkowa. The sender included extensive passages on personal matters: his relationship with his mother, his loneliness, his marriage to Seweryna Kaftal and the scandal that followed. He also touched upon the problem of his struggle with the need and power of creativity, his humility in the face of the shortcomings of his writing talent, which made him profile his sphere of activity.