Memories of Starobielsk - Essays Between Art and History

Zusatztext “What distinguishes Memories of Starobielsk and deepens our understanding of the events Czapski lived through is the vision he imparts of a Europe that the Soviets (and the Nazis) had attempted to destroy. . . . Memories of Starobielsk shows the victims not as soldiers but as doctors, professors, engineers, writers, translators—people of education and character, products of a civilization that Stalinism could not accommodate.” —Philip Ó. Ceallaigh, The Los Angeles Review of Books “Jo´zef Czapski was a beautiful human being, courageous, noble but also hardworking; occasionally a soldier, journalist, diarist, always writing, drawing, always with a sketchbook in hand, always ready to help friends and strangers. In his person high intelligence and remarkable artistic talent met with an active, almost naive goodness—a rather rare combination, as we know” —Adam Zagajewski Informationen zum Autor Józef Czapski (1896-1993) was a writer and artist, as well as an officer in the Polish army. NYRB Classics publishes his work of reportage about the Katyn Massacre, Inhuman Land, and a collection of his lectures on Proust during his time as a P.O.W. in a Soviet prison camp, Lost Time. New York Review Books also publishes Eric Karpeles's biography of Czapski, Almost Nothing. Alissa Valles is the author, most recently, of the poetry collection Hospitium. Her translations include Zbigniew Herbert's Collected Poems and Collected Prose and Ryszard Krynicki's Our Life Grows (NYRB Poets). She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Irena Grudzin´ska Gross's books include Czeslaw Milosz and Joseph Brodsky: Fellowship of Poets and The Scar of Revolution: Tocqueville, Custine, and the Romantic Imagination. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Klappentext Vivid accounts of life in a Soviet prison camp by the author of 'Inhuman Land.' Interned with thousands of Polish army officers and a handful of civilians in the Soviet prisoner-of-war camp at Starobielsk in September 1939, the artist Józef Czapski was one of a very small number to survive the massacre carried out in the forest of Katyn in April 1940. In prose written while the war still raged, Czapski portrays these doomed men, some with the detail of a finished portrait and others in vivid sketches imbued with a rare combination of intimacy and respect, registering their fierce striving to remain fully engaged in humane pursuits under hopeless circumstances. This memoir is complemented by essays on art, history, and literature that show Czapski's lifelong attachment to the Russian culture that educated him, in all its contradictory manifestations, from the poet Aleksandr Blok's fascinated response to revolution to the lonely struggle of the painter Chaim Soutine. They include a wartime sequence of short essays on painting written on a train when Czapski was traveling from Moscow to the Second Polish Army's strategic base in Central Asia, which are among his most lyrical and insightful reflections on art. Zusammenfassung Vivid accounts of life in a Soviet prison camp by the author of Inhuman Land . Interned with thousands of Polish officers in the Soviet prisoner-of-war camp at Starobielsk in September 1939, Jo´zef Czapski was one of a very small number to survive the massacre in the forest of Katyn´ in April 1940. Memories of Starobielsk portrays these doomed men, some with the detail of a finished portrait, others in vivid sketches that mingle intimacy with respect, as Czapski describes their struggle to remain human under hopeless circumstances. Essays on art, history, and literature complement the memoir, showing Czapski’s lifelong engagement with Russian culture. The short pieces on painting that he wrote while on a train traveling from Moscow to the Second Polish Army’s strategic base in Central Asia stand among his most lyrical and insightful reflections on art....

Info autore

Józef Czapski (1896-1993) was a writer and artist, as well as an officer in the Polish army. NYRB Classics publishes his work of reportage about the Katyn Massacre, Inhuman Land, and a collection of his lectures on Proust during his time as a P.O.W. in a Soviet prison camp, Lost Time. New York Review Books also publishes Eric Karpeles's biography of Czapski, Almost Nothing.

Alissa Valles is the author, most recently, of the poetry collection Hospitium. Her translations include Zbigniew Herbert's Collected Poems and Collected Prose and Ryszard Krynicki's Our Life Grows (NYRB Poets). She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Irena Grudzińska Gross's books include Czeslaw Milosz and Joseph Brodsky: Fellowship of Poets and The Scar of Revolution: Tocqueville, Custine, and the Romantic Imagination. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Jozef Czapski, Irena Gross, Irena Grudzinska Gross, Alissa Valles
• Con la collaborazione di: Alissa Valles (Traduzione)
• Editore: NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 30.11.2020
• EAN: 9781681374864
• ISBN: 978-1-68137-486-4
• Pagine: 256
• Dimensioni: 128 mm x 203 mm x 13 mm
• Categorie: Narrativa > Romanzi; Saggistica > Politica, società, economia > Biografie, autobiografie; Scienze umane, arte, musica > Arte