biography
pronunciation:
[meewosh, chezhwof
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1911– )
|
| biography:
| Poet and man of letters, born in Szetejnie, N Lithuania. A founder of the catastrophist school of Polish poetry, co-founder of the literary periodical Zagary, and author of a book of essays called The Captive Mind (trans title), he was a leader of the avant garde before World War 2. During the War he worked for the Warsaw underground, then became a member of the Polish diplomatic service (1946–50). Rejecting the Communist government, he exiled himself to Paris to write (1951–60), then emigrated to America, becoming professor of Slavic languages and literature at the University of California, Berkeley. His poetry includes Hymn of the Pearl (1981), Hymn of the Earth (1986), and Road-Side Dog (1998) (trans titles). A selection of his wartime essays, Legends of Modernity (trans title), appeared in 1996, and his Collected Poems in 1997. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. |
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