SLONIMSKI, ANTONI

SLONIMSKI, ANTONI (1895–1976), Polish poet, author, and critic. The son of a converted Warsaw physician and grandson of the Hebrew writer Ḥayyim Selig *Slonimski, Slonimski began his literary career during World War i, publishing his early Sonety and founding the "Pikador" group of poets in 1918. From the early 1920s he rose rapidly to become the leading personality in Poland's literary and cultural life, a master of the verse form and a keen and versatile drama critic. In 1920 he was the cofounder with Julian *Tuwim of the futurist "Skamander" group, and during the years 1924–39 wrote the leading theater reviews for the weekly Wiadomości Literackie, also contributing a regular satirical column from 1927. Slonimski published more than 40 books, including verse collections. He became a major focus of Polish intellectual interest in the 1930s, and also translated many foreign classics (Rimbaud, Mark Twain, Itzik *Manger). In 1939 he fled to England by way of Paris and during the years 1947–48 was head of unesco's literary section, subsequently directing the Polish Cultural Institute in London (1949–51). His verse that appeared during the war years included Alarm (1940) and Popiół i wiatr ("Ashes and Wind," 1942).

In the prewar Poland of Marshal Pilsudski, Slonimski trenchantly satirized bourgeois ignorance and stupidity and spurious racial and social theories. Though rehabilitated as chairman of the Polish Writers' Union (1956–59), he remained a nonconformist in postwar Communist Poland, preferring silence to any compromise with a totalitarian regime. His works and his personal stand exemplified the intellectual's independence and freedom of thought. Though raised as a Christian, Slonimski had a profound emotional regard for the Jewish people, which may be detected in poems such as his Pieśń o Januszu Korczaku ("Song about Janusz Korczak"), Ahaswer (on the Wandering Jew), and Elegja miasteczek zydowskich ("Elegy of the Shtetlakh"). Israel's War of Independence had wide repercussions in his poetry, and in 1967 Slonimski condemned those calling for Israel's destruction during the period preceding the Six-Day War.

bibliography:

A. Kowalczykowa, Linyki Słonimskiego 1918–1935 (1967); J. Slawiński, in: Twórczośí, 13:8 (1957), 79–105; A. Sandauer, Poeci trzech pokoleń (1962²); J. Kwiatkowski, Szkice de portretów (1960); Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna, 10 (1967), 590.

[Stanislaw Wygodzki and

Moshe Altbauer]