Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna (6 August 1892 – 16 February 1983) was a Polish poet, prose writer,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and translator. She was one of the most acclaimed and celebrated poets during Poland's interwar period.

Life and work

She was born on 6 August 1892, in Vilnius (now in

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, but then part of the Russian Empire). Her mother was Barbara Iłłakowiczówna and her father was Klemens Zan (son of Tomasz Zan - a close friend of Adam Mickiewicz). She was orphaned at an early age and was brought up in a family of her relatives. Zofia Buyno (''née'' Zyberk-Plater) became her foster mother. Between 1908-1909 she studied at University of Oxford. She co-founded and then was (with eg.

Cezaria Jędrzejewiczowa Cezaria Jędrzejewiczowa, or Cezaria Anna Baudouin de Courtenay Ehrenkreutz-Jędrzejewiczowa, (1885–1967) was a Polish scientist, art historian, and anthropologist. She was one of the pioneers of ethnology in Poland and one of the first scienti ...

and Zofia Sadowska) a member of the Association of Polish Women Students - Spójnia in Saint Petersburg, within which she led the literary and discussion clubs, based on the ones she witnessed at Oxford. In the years 1910-1914 she studied at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

in Kraków. In 1915-1917, she worked as a nurse assistant in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

. Beginning in 1918, she worked for the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

. In 1924, Iłłakowiczówna published an anthology of poems in honor of Monsignor Konstanty Budkiewicz's life and martyrdom by the Soviet secret police inside Moscow's Lubyanka Prison upon Easter Sunday, 1923. Modeled after the traditional

oral poetry Oral poetry is a form of poetry that is composed and transmitted without the aid of writing. The complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain. Background Oral poetry is ...

of the Polish peasantry, the collection was titled ''Opowieść o moskiewskim męczeństwie'' ("The Story of the Moscow Martyr"). Between 1926-1935, Iłłakowiczówna served as Marshal Józef Piłsudski's secretary. In the interwar period, her works were published in literary press, most notably in the literary magazine ''Tęcza'' ("Rainbow") in Poznań. In 1939, when the World War II broke out, she was evacuated to Romania. She returned to Poland in 1947 and settled in Poznań. She was widely regarded as one of the most important literary figures of the interwar period in Warsaw. She became fascinated with the feminist movement and during her stay in London she familiarized herself with the works of

Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst ('' née'' Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, ''Time'' named her as one of the 100 Most Impo ...

, which encouraged her to take active part in the distribution of

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

brochures. Nonetheless, she remained a deeply religious person throughout her life, strongly adhering to the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

values and spirituality. Iłłakowiczówna had a wide circle of friends, many of which were well-known intellectuals, prominent poets and artists including Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Julian Tuwim and

Maria Dąbrowska Maria Dąbrowska (; born Maria Szumska; 6 October 1889 – 19 May 1965) was a Polish writer, novelist, essayist, journalist and playwright, author of the popular Polish historical novel ''Noce i dnie'' (Nights and Days) written between 1932 and 1 ...

. She also translated works of European literature by such writers as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

, Heinrich Böll and Leo Tolstoy as well as the American poet Emily Dickinson, she also worked as a teacher of English. In the last years of her life, she became blind as a result of unsuccessful glaucoma surgery. She died on 16 February 1983 and was buried at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

Awards and distinctions

* Literary Award of the City of Vilnius (1930) * Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1934) * Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature (1935) * Commander's Cross of the

Order of the Crown of Romania The Order of the Crown of Romania is a chivalric order set up on 14 March 1881 by King Carol I of Romania to commemorate the establishment of the Kingdom of Romania. It was awarded as a state order until the end of the Romanian monarchy in 1947. ...

(1938) * Award of the City of Poznań (1968) * Honorary doctorate of the Adam Mickiewicz University (1981)

Selected publications

* ''Ikarowe loty'' ("Flights of Icarus") (1912) * ''Trzy struny'' ("Three Strings") (1917) * ''Kolędy polskiej biedy. W Wigilię powrotu'' (1917) * ''Śmierć Feniksa'' ("The Death of Phoenix") (1922) * ''Rymy dziecięce'' ("Children's Rhymes") (1923) * ''Połów'' ("Halves") (1926) * ''Opowieść o moskiewskim męczeństwie. Złoty wianek'' ("A Tale of Moscow Martydom. Golden Wreath") (1927) * ''Płaczący ptak'' ("The Crying Bird") (1927) * ''Z głębi serca'' (''From the Depth of My Heart'') (1928) * ''Popiół i perły'' ("Ashes and Pearls") (1930) * ''Ballady bohaterskie'' ("Heroic Ballads") (1934) * ''Słowik litewski. Poezja'' ("Lithuanian Nightingale. Poetry") (1936) * "Wiersze o Marszałku Piłsudskim. 1912-1935" ("Poems on Marshal Józef Piłsudski. 1912-1935") (1936) * ''Ścieżka obok drogi'' (1939) * ''Wiersze religijne. 1912-1954'' ("Religious Poems. 1912-1954") (1955) * ''Wiersze dziecięce'' ("Children's Poems") (1959) * ''Zwierzaki i zioła'' ("Animals and Herbs") (1960) * ''Ta jedna nić'' ("That One Thread") (1967) * ''Rzeczy sceniczne'' (1969)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Illakowiczowna, Kazimiera 1892 births 20th-century Polish poets Polish women poets 1983 deaths 20th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights Polish women dramatists and playwrights Polish feminists Writers from Vilnius Alumni of the University of Oxford Jagiellonian University alumni 20th-century women writers Recipients of the State Award Badge (Poland) 20th-century Polish women Catholic poets