World of Witold Gombrowicz 1904-1969 : Catalog of a Centenary Exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

by Giroud, Vincent

• ISBN13: 9780845731581
• ISBN10: 0845731580
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-30
• Publisher: Univ Pr of New England

Summary

The greatest prose writer of twentieth-century Polish letters, Witold Gombrowicz is also recognized as a figure whose literary standing is comparable to Proust, Joyce, Kafka, Musil, or Beckett. Yet his reputation in the United States and the English-speaking world has never been equal to his renown in continental Europe or in Latin America. In a letter to an American publisher preserved in his archive at the Beinecke Library, he writes that he hoped to be read in America someday, at least by the elite. Yet Gombrowicz is no elitist writer. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Gombrowicz's birth, the Yale commemoration is part of the "Gombrowicz Autumn" in the United States, featuring performances of his plays, screenings of film adaptations of his works, photographic exhibitions, and publications by and about him.

Author Biography

VINCENT GIROUD was curator of modern books and manuscripts at the Beinecke Library, Yale University, from 1987 until 2004. He is currently Randolph Distinguished Visiting Professor of French at Vassar College. His most recent publications include William Walton, Composer and St. Petersburg: A Portrait of a Great City.