Milosz archive for Poland's National Library

The purchase was made possible thanks to funds of Culture Ministry. Its representative, Zina Jarmoszuk, told a meeting of the parliamentary commission on culture, that the collection includes the poet’s family documents from the 16th century onwards, the correspondence of the poet’s ancestors from the 19th and 20th centuries, Czeslaw Milosz’s letters to his family, family photographs as well as photographs documenting the poet’s extensive travels made by his brother Andrzej.

Jarmoszczuk added that talks are currently under way with the poet’s son Anthony on the transfer to Poland of the part of Milosz’s archive which is still in the United States, where he lived for several decades.

This year, 2011 marks the centenary of Czeslaw Milosz’s birth. The Ministry of Culture official briefed parliamentary deputies on some of the major projects relating to the Milosz Year.

Translations of his poetry and prose are planned this year in 23 countries, including China. Milosz is one of the icons of the cultural programme of the Polish presidency in the EU Council. Audiobooks with a selection of his poetry are also to be published in many languages.

An international academic session under the motto ‘Warsaw’s Milosz’ will be held in the Polish capital in mid-October.

The writer’s birth centenary is included in the UNESCO-sponsored list of anniversaries. In addition to Poland, the Milosz Year is marked in Lithuania, where he was born, in the United States, France, Israel and Russia. Poland’s Book Institute runs a website with updated information on all events and initiatives connected with the Milosz Year.

Czeslaw Milosz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. He died in 2004 at the age of 93. In 1951-89 he lived in exile as a political émigré, first in France and then in the United States. (mk/jb)