A poet “at one’s service” in the embrace of a “great manipulator” (on the margins of letters by Kazimierz Wierzyński and Jerzy Giedroyc)

Abstract

The text is based on unpublished letters written by Jerzy Giedroyc and Kazimierz Wierzyński, which are stored in the archives of “Kultura” in Maisons-Laffitte as a collection of 440 works from the years 1944–1969. The exchange of letters continued in the years 1944–1949 when Giedroyc first as an editor of “Orzeł Biały” and later in the early period of the publication of “Kultura” sought Wierzyński’s cooperation. Their communication stopped in 1949 due to differences in political views and was revived after 1960 when Wierzyński came back to Europe from the United States. From Giedroyc’s letters to other authors (e.g. Andrzej Bobkowski) emerges his rather critical attitude towards Wierzyński; however, the editor of “Kultura” was aware of the poet’s position in the environment of independence emigration and purposefully used his name to achieve important goals. After some time, Giedroyc started to ask Wierzyński for the creation of particular texts and his requests were connected mainly with current political events. The poet undertook those tasks as he knew that his name played a significant role; nevertheless, he treated his activity with a self-ironic distance. Some poetic works such as Na śmierć Broniewskiego, Quai d’Anjou and Na śmierć Jana Palacha were written on order. As a result of personal and correspondence dialogues with the editor, the poet started to work on a series of poems known as Czarny polonez. The discovery of the works’ origin does not undermine their poetic values – it gives important knowledge which enables their broader interpretation. It seems that the specific kind of cooperation between Giedroyc and Wierzyński, who shared their concern about Poland’s affairs, was satisfying for both sides.