Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004)

(aka: Adrian Zieliński, B.B. Kuska, Jan M. Nowak, Jan Syruć, Father Jan Robak, Primas Aron)

Poet, prose writer, essayist, translator. Born in Szetejnie (Lithuania), Czesław Miłosz was the winner of numerous prestigious awards, including that of the PEN Club (1974, for translations of Polish poetry into English), Guggenheim (1976), the International Neustadt Literary Award (1977), and also of NIKE’98. In 2000, to honour the 90th birthday of the poet, the Jagiellonian University honoured him with the Silver Medal of the 600th Anniversary of the Refoundation of Kraków Academy. Holder of honorary doctorates from numerous universities in the USA, Poland, and Lithuania; honorary citizen of Lithuania and the city of Kraków, Miłosz was for many years “ignored” in Poland. Awarded the Nobel Prize for lifetime achievement in 1980, he became an authority in Poland in line with Lech Wałęsa and John Paul II. Beginning with 1989, he would ever more often visit Kraków, and his flat in the city centre became his new home after Berkeley. International critics believe the poetic works of Miłosz to be among the most significant phenomena in contemporary literature. He was buried in the Church “na Skałce”.