KAZIMIERZ SOWIŃSKI – PISARZ, INICJATOR PISMA ZWIĄZKU PISARZY POLSKICH NA OBCZYŹNIE

Kazimierz Sowiński started working on the idea of the magazine „Pamiętnik Literacki” in London in 1974 as a „reference book” to document the cultural and literary life of the Polish diaspora. There was a desperate need to register and collect in one publication, facts, literary events, awards, institutions, as well as to print essays about poetry and prose. „Pamiętnik Literacki” was preceded by the correspondence of its editor with Polish writers from all over the world. Kazimierz Sowiński was the right person to ensure the success of „Pamiętnik Literacki” because he gathered vast experience and knowledge throughout his life. Before Second World War he published his first poetry and novels, collaborating with well-known magazines in Warsaw and Lodz, he worked in Polish Radio, and made many public appearances. He had a very good record as a patriot during the war, and between 1952–1973 he was employed by Radio Free Europe in Munich, and was later elected as Chairman of Związek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyźnie (e Union of Polish Writers Abroad). He never completed the magazine „Pamiętnik Literacki”, because he had a stroke which let him paralysed. Its rst edition was printed in 1976 as an annual magazine and now the review comes out twice a year. Kazimierz Sowiński – poet, playwright, editor and journalist, died in Mabledon Hospital in 1982.