How (not) to publish… The case of "Pamiętnik" by Wacław Sieroszewski

Abstract

The article presents mistakes in the edition of Wacław Sieroszewski’s diary, written in the years 1939–1944, and published by Andrzej Lam in a 2-volume edition of the author’s Dzieła (Cracow 1959–1963), in three different volumes, with numerous fragments omitted. Controversies are stirred mainly by such decisions of the editor as: random abbreviations of large parts of the text, omission of repetitions of the same phrases and descriptions of facts previously referred to, removing passages which disturb the chronology of events, lack of many documents, and finally the adopted composition order.

The author does not stop at pointing to mistakes in Lam’s edition, but proposes the shape which a new critical edition of Sieroszewski’s diary should have. She also tries to solve the problem of Lam’s mysterious numeration of the preserved volumes: I, II, III, X, XI, XII and XIII, convincing that the information about the destruction of the middle volumes (IV–IX) during the Warsaw Rising is hardly reliable, and that one should rather assume the writer’s deteriorating memory and his traumatic wartime experiences. It resulted in repetition of the same (or similar) contents in the diary, lack of continuity in volume numeration and the progressing chaos of the narration.