The distinguished Polish poet Adam Zagajewski on the role of Witold Gombrowicz in building a Polish national consciousness and his life-long fascination with the Gombrowicz Diaries.
Adam Zagajewski was born on the 21st of June, 1945 in Lviv as the son of Professor Tadeusz Zagajewski – a pioneer of Polish electronics (1912-2010). Shortly after his birth, the Zagajewski family was repatriated to Poland within the borders set at the Yalta conference. Zagajewski spent his childhood years in Gliwice, in the Silesia region, and university years in Kraków. He studied psychology and philosophy at the Jagiellonian University, later teaching philosophy courses as a university assistant. He also worked as an editor for the Student and Odra periodicals. Zagajewski soon made a name for himself as a poet of the Generation '68, referred to as the Kraków New Wave.