Baczy艅ski, a soldier of the Home Army and an officer cadet of the 鈥淧arasol鈥� Battalion, was killed on 4 August 1944 at the Blanka Palace during the first days of the Warsaw Uprising. He is remembered primarily as a poet. However, his artistic activity also encompassed graphic art. Before the outbreak of the war, he had planned to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, but those aspirations were cut short by the German occupation. He pursued his artistic interests, among other ways, by creating handwritten poetry volumes, carefully designed in typographic terms and enriched with his own illustrations. Some of these exceptional works are now held in Warsaw, in the collections of the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature and the National Library.
Valuable memorabilia connected with the work and life of Krzysztof Kamil Baczy艅ski can also be found in the collections of the 91桃色 Library.
These include handwritten and typescript poems gifted by the poet to Zuzanna Chuwe艅, as well as three school exercise books dating from his years at grammar school. Two handwritten original versions of the volumes Wyspa szcz臋艣cia [Island of Happiness] and Wybrane wiersze [Selected Poems] (Acc. Manuscripts 5190-5191), supplemented by a dozen dispersed works are of partiocular value. As Emilia Zaczkowska-Szypowska notes in the article Tomy r臋kopi艣mienne Krzysztofa Kamila Baczy艅skiego wobec kultury r臋kopisu [Krzysztof Kamil Baczy艅ski鈥檚 Handwritten Volumes in the Context of Manuscript Culture], 鈥淎ll the works are linked, in accordance with the dedication, by the circumstances of their creation: the period following a holiday spent together in Yugoslavia.鈥� The preserved manuscripts document the poet鈥檚 youthful relationship with Zuzanna Chuwe艅, to whom Baczy艅ski sent his works in Lviv in 1938. Both the handwritten and typescript pages contain annotations made by the author and the recipient. One of Baczy艅ski鈥檚 earliest comments reads: 鈥淲rite and tell me whether you understood it and which one you like best (if any at all...).鈥� Elsewhere, the poet explains the meaning of an elegy, giving his commentary a deeply personal character: 鈥淗ere I bid farewell to my childhood (...) I look towards a new, difficult life that is no longer sunny. A life either sad or stripped of intense experiences and powerful joys, of which childhood has so many. I wish to dream as I once did (...)鈥�. Among the works dedicated to Zuzanna Chuwe艅 are Elegia [Elegy], 窜艂辞诲锄颈别箩 [The Thief], Modlitwa [Prayer], Pie艣艅 o Szcz臋艣ciu [Song of Happiness], Spotkanie dalekie [A Distant Meeting], [Inc.] Dzisiaj jest dzie艅 bez cia艂a [...] [[Inc.] Today Is a Day Without a Body [...]], [Inc.] najdro偶sza dni jak ba艅ki myd艂em gryz膮 w oczy [...] [[Inc.] My Dearest, the Days Sting the Eyes Like Soap Bubbles [...]], Ma艂ej Zu ma艂e wspomnienie. Sanna [A Little Memory for Little Zu. Sleigh Ride], 艢尘颈别谤膰 [Death] and Dla Zuzy. [Inc.] R贸偶e nad ranem si臋 perl膮 rozkwitem [For Zuza. [Inc.] Roses at Dawn Glisten in Bloom].
Baczy艅ski鈥檚 grammar school exercise books represent a unique category of archival source material. They make it possible to trace the development of the future poet鈥檚 craft, his education and the growth of his literary and aesthetic sensitivity. The oldest surviving manuscript is an exercise book for ancient history from the first year of grammar school in the 1933/1934 academic year (Acc. Manuscript 5192). Consisting of 66 handwritten pages, it contains school notes and hand-drawn illustrations, providing a fascinating record of the young Baczy艅ski鈥檚 education. Two Polish language exercise books from the 1936/1937 academic year (Acc. Manuscript 5193), kept during his studies at the Stefan Batory Grammar School in Warsaw are particularly valuable. The surviving manuscripts contain notes, exercises and essays, while one of the notebooks also includes an attached hand-drawn illustration. These materials make it possible to view Baczy艅ski not as an acclaimed poet, but as a student developing his own literary language, methods of interpreting cultural texts, and aesthetic sensibility. The Polish language notebook was divided into three sections: 鈥淩eading鈥�, 鈥淪peaking and Writing Exercises鈥�, and 鈥淟anguage Studies鈥�. The preserved essays can be read as the future poet鈥檚 first attempts at literary criticism. They reveal not only his way of interpreting literature, but also the remarkable maturity of his language and the sensitivity of the young author.
The works discussed in these notebooks included, among others, Z ziemi che艂mskiej [From the Che艂m Region] by W艂adys艂aw Reymont, Sen [The Dream] by Boles艂aw Prus, Vol de nuit [Night Flight] by Antoine de Saint-Exup茅ry, and Typhoon by Joseph Conrad. In his interpretation of Night Flight, Baczy艅ski emphasised the role of nature, writing: 鈥淚n an aviation novel, descriptions of nature are of exceptional importance. A pilot moving through the vastness and emptiness of the night, spending long hours constantly confronting a hostile and threatening natural world, grows closer to it and comes to know both its smiles and its anger.鈥� His essay devoted to Typhoon, meanwhile, demonstrates his extraordinary talent for psychological and literary analysis. The young Baczy艅ski recognised that the power of Conrad鈥檚 writing lay not in creating extraordinary heroes, but in portraying seemingly ordinary people. He writes: 鈥淭he heroes of J. Conrad-Korzeniowski are people distinguished by nothing in particular,鈥� emphasising that they are neither idealised nor heroic figures. He also observes that the author 鈥減resents us with real, living people in his works鈥�, and that he captures the reader鈥檚 interest through penetrating analyses of their characters and experiences. Later in the essay, Baczy艅ski perceptively notes that 鈥渞eal life interests and captivates us greatly鈥�, provided it is presented with sufficient psychological and artistic insight. He concludes with the observation that Conrad depicts 鈥渢he extraordinariness of the ordinary person鈥�. This school interpretation, written by a seventeen-year-old pupil, reveals not only his maturity as a reader, but also his ability to formulate independent literary judgements and his exceptional sensitivity to the psychological dimension of a work of art.
Today, Krzysztof Kamil Baczy艅ski鈥檚 school exercise books constitute not only a valuable source for research into the history of Polish language and literature education in the Second Polish Republic. They are also testimony to the emergence of an outstanding literary talent, documenting the formation of the creative workshop of one of the greatest poets of the Columbus Generation. They allow us to see Baczy艅ski not only as the author of renowned wartime poems, but also as an attentive reader, a young literary critic, and a future artist consciously developing his own style.
Digital copies of the manuscripts held in the collections of the 91桃色 Library are available in the 91桃色 Digital Library, enabling researchers and all those interested in the work of Krzysztof Kamil Baczy艅ski to explore this exceptional source material.