Brandys, Kazimierz

▪ 2001

      Polish novelist and essayist (b. Oct. 27, 1916, Lodz, Pol., Russian Empire—d. March 11, 2000, Paris, France), spent his career as a writer documenting life in Poland prior to, during, and following World War II. Shortly before the war, Brandys earned a law degree (1939) from the University of Warsaw, and in 1945 he joined the editorial board of the Marxist weekly Kúznica (“The Forge”). Although a Jew, Brandys escaped Nazi detection by securing falsified documents. He lived in the Polish side of Warsaw and was a survivor of the 1944 Warsaw uprising. His first novel, Drewniany koń (1946; “ The Wooden Horse”), recounted the hardship faced by the Polish intelligentsia under the Nazis. After the war he joined the Communist Party, and his works reflected this ideology. His early novels were considered prime examples of the Socialist Realism genre, and one of them, Miasto niepokonane (1946; “The Invincible City”) won the government's highest literary award; a poignant narrative about wartime Warsaw, it was translated into several languages. His most celebrated work in this genre was probably Obywatele (1954; “Citizens”), which dealt with high-school vigilantes. After becoming disaffected with the Communists, Brandys penned a number of revisionist works, notably Matka Królów (1957; Sons and Comrades, 1961), before leaving the party in 1966. His later works, like the earlier ones, explored the impact that history had on the individual and centred on themes of love, death, the uncertainties of life, solitude, and God. During the 1970s Brandys began to experiment. His Wariacje pocztowe (1972; “Postal Variations”) was a series of letters—spanning the 18th to the 20th century—penned by successive generations of a family. The novel, a literary masterpiece, was highly stylized and written in distinctive idioms. Brandys was a founding member during the 1970s of the underground journal Zapis (“The Record”), which featured his essays on life in Warsaw. These were later compiled and formed the basis for Brandys's most defining multivolume work, Miesiące (“Months”), a series of diaries. Volume one, translated into English as A Warsaw Diary, 1978–1981 (1983), was followed by an abridged version of volume three: Paris, New York: 1982–1984 (1988). Volume four covered the years 1985 to 1987.

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▪ Polish author

born October 27, 1916, Łódz, Poland, Russian Empire [now in Poland]

died March 11, 2000, Paris, France

      Polish novelist and essayist remembered both for his early espousal of Socialist Realism and his later rejection of communist ideology.

      Brandys was born into a middle-class Jewish family. He graduated with a degree in law from the University of Warsaw in 1939. After having survived the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II, he joined the editorial board of the Marxist weekly Kuźnica (“The Forge”) in 1945. The following year Brandys made his literary debut with the novel Drewniany koń (“The Wooden Horse”), in which he related the ordeal of the Polish intelligentsia under the Nazi terror. In a more ambitious, four-volume epic novel, Między wojnami (1948–53; “Between the Wars”), he described from a communist viewpoint the moral and ideological experiences of a generation of Polish intellectuals before, during, and after World War II. These early works established Brandys as a leading exponent of Socialist Realism.

      In the early 1950s, however, Brandys began to voice disillusionment with communism. After a partial relaxation of government controls over Poland's cultural life in 1956, he mildly criticized the ideology in the novellas Obrona Grenady (1956; “Defense of Grenada”) and Matka Królów (1957; “Mother Królów”; Eng. trans. Sons and Comrades). In his Listy do Pani Z., 3 vol. (1957–61; Letters to Mrs. Z.), as well as in a volume of short stories, Romantyczność (1960; “Romanticism”), he analyzed the moral and psychological transformations of contemporary Poland, and after the release of Nierzeczywistość (1977; A Question of Reality), a work openly critical of communism, Brandys was banned from publishing in Poland.

      In 1977 Brandys was associated with Zapis, a literary journal of dissident writers, in which he published essays on life in Warsaw, eventually incorporating these into his multivolume series of memoirs Miesiące (1980; “Months”). Volume one was translated into English as A Warsaw Diary 1978–1981 (1983), and an abridged version of volume three appeared as Paris, New York: 1982–1984 (1988). Brandys was an active supporter of Solidarity, and he settled in Paris after the trade union was outlawed by the Polish government in 1981.

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