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Jerzy Peterkiewicz

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Born: September 28 1916

Died: 2525 10 20072007

Jerzy Pietrkiewicz or Peterkiewicz was a Polish poet, novelist, translator, literary critic and professor of Polish language and literature at London University from 1972 to 1979 who spent much of his life in British exile.

He began writing novels in English in 1953, reserving Polish for his poetical works. His novels were successful, and led to a friendship with Muriel Spark. On the accession of Pope John Paul II, Pietrkiewicz translated his poems into English, and as a result his own work became known in Poland. He was awarded the Prize of the Ministry of Culture and Art in 1987.

His first book of poetry appeared in 1935, when he was 18, dedicated to the people of his village. Critical and popular success followed and he started to depict Poland as strong and free.

When, in 1939, the Germans and then the Russians invaded Poland, his career as a journalist and literary editor ended. He managed to reach Romania.

He arrived in Britain, from France, in 1940. Exempted from military service on health grounds, he was helped by the British Council to go to the University of St Andrews. There, he took a first degree in English and German in 1944, and then, in 1947, a doctorate in English literature from King's College London, becoming the first Pole in the history of that college to do so. Soon afterwards he married the writer Christine Brooke-Rose, but they later separated. He was also married briefly to a Polish actor called Danuta Karel.

He died in London.

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Jerzy Peterkiewicz

Jerzy Peterkiewicz

Books from Jerzy Peterkiewicz

Three Plays

Five Centuries of Polish Poetry, 1450-1970

Poems, Letters, Drawings (Poetry Pleiade)

Future to Let

The Knotted Cord

In the Scales of Fate

The Third Adam

The Other Side of Silence

That Angel Burning at My Left Side

Collected Poems

Isolation

The Wedding

Inner Circle