Iwaszkiewicz was born in Kalnyk in
Kiev Governorate of the
Russian Empire (now
Vinnytsia Oblast,
Ukraine). After the death of his father (an accountant), he and his mother lived in
Warsaw in 1902–1904, and then moved back to Kiev Governorate. He graduated from a secondary school in
Kiev in 1912 and enrolled at the Law Faculty of
Kiev University.
In 1914, he travelled in
Sicily and
North Africa with his friend and distant cousin
Karol Szymanowski, a composer for whose opera King Roger he later provided the libretto.[6] After World War I, in October 1918 Iwaszkiewicz came to Warsaw, where he joined a group of young artists associated with the Pro Arte et Studio magazine. He had his public debut as a poet at the Pod Picadorem café on 29 November. With
Julian Tuwim and
Antoni Słonimski, he founded the Skamander group of experimental poets in 1919.[7]
He was appointed to be secretary of
Maciej Rataj,
marshal of the Sejm of the
Second Polish Republic and served in that capacity in 1923–1925.[1] Iwaszkiewicz worked for a magazine called Wiadomości Literackie ('The Literary News') in 1924–1939; he also published his works in numerous periodicals, including Gazeta Polska (1934–1938) and Ateneum (1938–1939). He was secretary to the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych) and from 1925 a member of the Polish
PEN Club.[1] From 1927 with the Foreign Ministry, first appointed the head of the art promotion section of the Press Department and later sent as secretary of the Polish mission to
Copenhagen (1932–1935) and
Brussels (1935–1936).[1] He was a member of The Trade Union of Polish Writers (Związek Zawodowy Literatów Polskich, ZZLP) and in 1939 voted its vice-president.[1]
During World War II, Iwaszkiewicz participated in the
Polish Underground State's activities, working in the Department of Education, Science and Culture of the
Government Delegation for Poland.[1] He collaborated with Prof.
Stanisław Lorentz in his efforts to protect and rescue Poland's works of art. Iwaszkiewicz and his wife Anna had extensive contacts within the Jewish-Polish
intelligentsia circles and assisted their former neighbors, friends and acquaintances in a variety of ways during the
German occupation of Poland. Iwaszkiewicz family's Villa Stawisko residence served as a hiding place for many Jews and
Poles who faced the threat of being arrested by
Nazi Germans, especially after the fall of the
Warsaw Uprising in 1944. At one time, more than 40 people were sheltered in the mansion.[5][8] During the war, Stawisko also functioned as a center of Polish underground literature and art.[1][3]
In 1945–1946, 1947–1949 and 1959–1980, Iwaszkiewicz served as head of the
Polish Writers' Union.[1] In 1945–1949 and 1955–1957 he was literary manager of the
Polish Theatre in Warsaw.[1] From March 1947 to December 1949, he published the Nowiny literackie ('Literary News') magazine. Beginning in 1956, for many years he was chief editor of the monthly Twórczość ('Creativity').[2][9] Vice-president of the Polish PEN Club in 1950–1965.[1]
He served as a
nonpartisan member of parliament from 1952 until his death in 1980.[1] In his last three terms, he was the Senior
Marshal of the Sejm. Iwaszkiewicz wrote of his deeply
socialist convictions, but was ambivalent and privately bitter about the political reality of the
Polish People's Republic, within which he officially functioned. Nevertheless, he was greatly impressed by the appreciation note that he received from
Bolesław Bierut on the 40th anniversary of Iwaszkiewicz's literary career. In 1956, he was thrilled by the
Polish October events. After a conversation with
Edward Ochab in 1961, Iwaszkiewicz wrote: "They blame me for not having done anything as a member of the Sejm, but then they want me to be a deputy again".[9] He continued his lifelong habit of making many foreign trips.[3]
Iwaszkiewicz wrote novels and short stories, poems, dramatic works, essays and columns, and translations from
French,
English,
Russian and
Danish literatures. His major epic novel is Sława i Chwała ('Fame and Glory') – a panorama of life of Polish
intelligentsia in the first half of the 20th century. In particular, he is highly regarded for his short stories, a genre he developed and modernized. Using changing forms and themes, throughout his career Iwaszkiewicz produced collections of poems of major significance. He wrote plays based on classical motifs and many miscellaneous pieces reflecting his interests and pursuits in areas such as music and theatre, travel, and popularization of culture.[1]
Czesław Miłosz wrote the following: "Iwaszkiewicz is a great figure and nobody who deals with
Polish literature can omit him. Even if some parts of his huge literary output are excluded, there is enough left, also as a testimony to the three epochs, to secure for him a place higher than that of any of his contemporaries". He concluded, "One is almost inclined to believe that some people are gripped by circumstances meant for them, and that for him the good fortunes, after his impoverished youth, began in the
interwar period, to endure also later". For Miłosz could not imagine Iwaszkiewicz as an émigré personality.[3]
Iwaszkiewicz died on 2 March 1980 and was buried on 5 March at the cemetery in
Brwinów near Warsaw, according to his last wish in a miner's uniform.
Personal life
In 1922, Iwaszkiewicz married
Anna Lilpop (1897–1979), a writer and translator and daughter of Stanisław Wilhelm Lilpop, a wealthy entrepreneur.[11] The couple settled in
Podkowa Leśna near Warsaw. In 1928, they moved to a newly built villa that Iwaszkiewicz named Stawisko.[1] It currently houses a museum devoted to Iwaszkiewicz and his wife. They had two daughters: Maria (1924–2019) and Teresa (1928–2012).[5] Iwaszkiewicz was
bisexual and
homoerotic; those themes are present in his poetry and prose works. In his diaries he describes himself as a "
homosexual"; however, in light of the current understanding of human
sexual orientation and his biography, he can be characterized as a bisexual. Iwaszkiewicz experienced and described a particularly intense relationship with a younger man terminally ill with
tuberculosis; it commenced when the writer was over sixty years old. His wife always "knew of all of his affections".[11]
In 2012, his great-granddaughter Ludwika Włodek wrote a best-selling biographical book about the life of her great-grandfather, titled Pra.[12]
Works
Short stories
Panny z Wilka ('The Wilko Girls'); Brzezina ('The Birch Grove'), Warsaw 1933
Młyn nad Utratą ('The Mill on the River Utrata'), Warsaw 1936
Dwa opowiadania ('Two Stories'), Warsaw 1938
Nowa miłość i inne opowiadania ('New Love and Other Stories'), Warsaw 1946
Tatarak i inne opowiadania ('Calamus and Other Stories'), Warsaw 1960
Heidenreich. Cienie. Dwa opowiadania ('Heidenreich. Shadows. Two Stories'), Poznań 1964
Novels
Zenobia Palmura, Poznań 1920
Ucieczka do Bagdadu ('Escape to Baghdad'), Warsaw 1923
Hilary, syn buchaltera ('Hilary, Son of a Bookkeeper'), Warsaw 1923
Księżyc wschodzi ('The Moon Rises'), Warsaw 1925
Zmowa mężczyzn ('Conspiracy of Men'), Warsaw 1930
Czerwone tarcze ('Red Shields'), Warsaw 1934
Sława i chwała ('Fame and Glory'), vol. 1–3, Warsaw 1956–1962
^Radosław Romaniuk (13 April 2015),
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz i początki Skamandra. ('Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and the beginnings of Skamander'), Histmag.org. From Inne życie. Biografia Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza. T.1 ('The other life. Biography of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz', vol.1) by Radosław Romaniuk. Iskry 2012.
ISBN978-83-244-0208-3.