The Collected Works comprise 15 volumes released by the publishing house Wydawnictwo Literackie between 2009 and 2021, under the editorship of Prof. Włodzimierz Bolecki, a literary historian and eminent scholar of the writer's work.
The first volume was published on the 90th anniversary of the writer's birth, and the publication of the last volume concluded the Year of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński.
Gustaw Herling-Grudziński. Image: Polish Radio
The works encompass the entirety of Herling-Grudziński's oeuvre, including both published and unpublished works, interviews, archival texts and notes.
They introduce new knowledge about the writer's life, his significance in Polish literature, both in exile and in his home country, the reception of his works at home and abroad, the issues with which the writer concerned himself as well as the evolution of his work.
During a ceremony in Warsaw on Tuesday, Marta Herling, daughter of the writer, expressed her immense gratitude for the work and noted the emotional significance of the occasion for her, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
"Today, two worlds—my father's life and creation, Poland and Italy—come together," she said. "This tribute has a great meaning for me."
The work on the edition lasted—including the preparation period—nearly 15 years, and its creation was the result of work by several dozen people: researchers, scientists, and editors, supported by the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Literary Research (IBL PAN) and a grant from the National Program for the Development of Humanities.
Herling-Grudziński was imprisoned in a Soviet labor camp during World War II and later fought against the Nazis in the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino. He was an ardent patriot living in political exile, choosing not to return to communist-ruled Poland.
He is best known for writing A World Apart, a personal account of life in the Soviet Gulag that was first published in London in 1951.
In Poland, Herling-Grudziński's works were known through underground publications, due to the communist censorship of the time. He could only visit his homeland after the fall of the communist regime.
Herling-Grudziński died in Naples, Italy, where he had lived and worked from 1955 until his death in 2000.
Poland's Culture Minister Piotr Gliński emphasized on Tuesday that the success of this significant project was the result of a collaboration between Poland and Italy.
"It is an honoring of Herling-Grudziński but also of the work of everyone involved in bringing the project to fruition," Gliński said.
Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, who also attended the ceremony, underscored the Polish writer's "ability to synthesize the experience of the 20th century," with all its tragedies.
"Herling-Grudziński was both anti-fascist and anti-communist," Sangiuliano said. "In this way, he testified to the value of freedom."
Sangiuliano also pointed out Herling-Grudziński's "synthesis of Italian and Polish culture," enhancing the bond between the two nations.
Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano. Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP