Pan od poezji / Poetry Man follows Herbert as the Dolnośląski Publishing House's (Wydawnictwo Dolnoslaskie) second book about one of the most outstanding Polish poets of all time. In this reportage-like biography, author Joanna Siedlecka draws on many previously unknown documents and materials, including photographs, manuscripts, and hitherto unknown information about the events in Zbigniew Herbert's life. At the cost of dismantling the monument that has been erected to this 'bard,' the author presents a man who is torn, full of doubts and anxieties, one who makes errors and is prone to mystification even in regard to his own biography.
The author of 'Poetry Man' has taken a penetrating look at Zbigniew Herbert as she did with Witold Gombrowicz in Jasnie Panicz / Honorable Esquire, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz Witkacy in Mahatma..., and Jerzy Kosinski in Czarny Ptasior / Big Black Bird.' She is interested primarily in the personal, private side of the poet's life, which, she writes, 'Continues to disappear under ever thicker layers of varnish.' Using numerous personal accounts, documents, and photographs, Siedlecka has created what in her own words she has called 'a reporter's, an author's patchwork.' Herbert needs no new myths; he himself was an unparalleled master of mystification. It must have been difficult for those around him to keep up. This in no way changes the fact that he occupies a special place in Polish poetry. If, years from now, his name is no longer mentioned in the same breath with Slowacki, it will mean only that in the so-called meantime values will have eroded unimaginably. (Krzysztof Maslon)
Joanna Siedlecka, born in Bialystok, is a member of the Association of Polish Writers and author of nine books: Stypa / The Wake, Poprawiny / After-Party, Parszywa sytuacja / Rotten Situation, Jaworowe dzieci / Sycamore Children, Jasnie Panicz / Honorable Esquire, Mahatma Witkac, Czarny ptasior / Big Black Bird, Wypominki / Prayers for the Dead and Wypominkow ciag dalszy / Prayers for the Dead Continued. Siedlecka has been recognized for her achievements on many occasions, garnering the Ksawery Pruszynski Award, an award of the Association of Polish Journalists, and the Leszek Prorok Literary Prize.
- Joanna Siedlecka
Poetry Man / Pan od poezji
Prószyński i S-ka, May 2002
167 x 242, 428 pages, hardcover
ISBN 83-7337-175-3