„Człowiek książki” — profesor Jerzy Starnawski

Professor Jerzy Starnawski (1922–2012) was a historian of literature, bibliographer and author of over one-thousand works published in 1948–2013. The article examines those of Starnawski’s writings that stemmed from his ceaseless interest in books, his constant contact with them and his studies of them during countless houres spent in libraries, even during brief visits to various towns. Starnawski was passionate about finding, documenting, describing and editing, especially previously unknown works, though he also studied remnants of works by Polish authors and information about Poland that disseminated outside the country. On the other hand, Starnawski’s teaching experiences led to the publication of comprehensive works introducing Polish language and literature scholars (and not only them) to bibliography and providing an overview of works dealing with the history of literature. Bibliography and history of book studies were subjects to which he devoted not only a separate publication but also a number of treatises and articles. In addition, he initiated and, to a large extent, edited 10 volumes of the Słownik badaczy literatury polskiej (Dictionary of Polish literature scholars), which is largely a biographical dictionary of book scholars.