Czeslaw Milosz - Nobel Prize in Literature, 1980 (13 books)

CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ (1911-2004) was a Polish poet, prose writer, translator and diplomat of Lithuanian origin. Among his many international honors, he was awarded the 1980 the Nobel Prize in Literature for having voiced "with uncompromising clear-sightedness . . . man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts."

Having lived under the two great totalitarian systems of modern history, national socialism and communism, Milosz wrote of the past in a tragic, ironic style that nonetheless affirmed the value of human life. Terrence Des Pres wrote: "In exile from a world which no longer exists, a witness to the Nazi devastation of Poland and the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe, Milosz deals in his poetry with the central issues of our time: the impact of history upon moral being, the search for ways to survive spiritual ruin in a ruined world."

First up, there are several volumes of poetry here. NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS, 1931-2001 (2003) brings to bear the sharp political awareness of an exile -- most notably in "A Treatise on Poetry", a 40-page exploration of the world wars that rocked the first half of the twentieth century. SECOND SPACE (2004) is typically capacious in the range of voices, forms, and subjects it embraces, moving seamlessly from dramatic monologues to theological treatises, from philosophy and history to epigrams, elegies, and metaphysical meditations -- all unified by Milosz's ongoing quest to find the bond linking the things of this world with the order of a "second space," shaped not by necessity, but grace.

A broad selection of his prose nonfiction is also represented. THE CAPTIVE MIND (1953) is a classic of anti-Stalinism, studying how intellectuals behave under a repressive regime. NATIVE REALM (1959) is a compelling account of his early life in which Milosz sketches his moral and intellectual history from childhood to the early fifties, providing the reader with a glimpse into a way of life that was radically different from anything an American or even a Western European could know. In VISIONS FROM SAN FRANCISCO BAY (1969) Milosz picks up same theme, comparing and contrasting the West with his native Poland. Another major prose work, THE LAND OF ULRO (1977) is both a moving spiritual self-portrait and an unflinching inquiry into the genesis of our modern afflictions.

EMPEROR OF THE EARTH (1977) is a stimulating collection of essays, mostly concerned with subjects taken from Slavic literatures, that is at once scholarly and reflective. TO BEGIN WHERE I AM (2001) is another rich sampling of Milosz's prose writing, spanning more than a half century, from an impassioned essay on human nature, wartime atrocities, and their challenge to ethical beliefs, to brief biographical sketches and poetic prose pieces from the late 1990s. Two great themes predominate in these essays: Milosz's personal struggle to sustain his religious faith, and his unswerving allegiance to a poetry that is "on the side of man."

UNATTAINABLE EARTH (1986) combines poetry, prose commentary, and "inscripts" -- quotations from other writers to create an intimate, multi-layered chorus of voices exploring themes of loss, the inadequacy of language, and the imaginative search for spiritual transcendence. ROAD-SIDE DOG (1997), a collection of maxims, anecdotes, meditations, crumbs of worldly wisdom, introspections, dreams and poems, takes readers on a trip through the sounds and images that shaped Milosz's life as a poet.

In CONVERSATIONS WITH CZESLAW MILOSZ (1987), the poet describes Poland's "hideous" loss of sovereignty in 1945, reminisces about the Poles' optimism during their brief period of independence between the two world wars and explains why he considers Marxism a philosophy for simple souls. Last but not least, STRIVING TOWARD BEING (1997) presents a selection from the ten-year correspondence between Milosz and Thomas Merton, where the poet and the Trappist monk debate the role of communism in the Cold War era, share advice about literature, and exchange contrasting views on the natural world.

Finally, allow me to express my very special thanks to @pharmakate, who generously contributed 6 of the 13 books in this torrent.


All the following books are in PDF format (EMPEROR is also included as an ePUB):



* NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS, 1931-2001 (Ecco, 2003). Scanned by and reproduced with the kind permission of @pharmakate.

* SECOND SPACE: New Poems (Ecco, 2004). Translated by the author and Robert Hass. Scanned by and reproduced with the kind permission of @pharmakate.

* SELECTED POEMS (Ecco, 1980). Various translators.




* THE CAPTIVE MIND (Vintage, 1955). Translated by Jane Zielonko. Scanned by and reproduced with the kind permission of @pharmakate.

* EMPEROR OF THE EARTH: Modes of Eccentric Vision (University of California, 1977). -- PDF + ePUB

* THE LAND OF ULRO (FSG, 1984). Translated by Louis Iribarne.

* NATIVE REALM: A Search for Self-Definition (University of California, 1981). Translated by Catherine S. Leach.

* ROAD-SIDE DOG (FSG, 1998). Translated by the author and Robert Hass.

* TO BEGIN WHERE I AM: Selected Essays (FSG, 2001). Edited with an Introduction by Bogdana Carpenter and Madeline G. Levine. Scanned by and reproduced with the kind permission of @pharmakate.

* UNATTAINABLE EARTH (Ecco, 1986). Translated by Robert Haas.

* VISIONS FROM SAN FRANCISCO BAY (Ecco, 1982). Translated by Richard Lourie.




* CONVERSATIONS WITH CZESLAW MILOSZ by Ewa Czarnecka and Aleksander Fiut (HBJ, 1987). Scanned by and reproduced with the kind permission of @pharmakate.

* STRIVING TOWARD BEING: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz (FSG, 1997). Edited by Robert Faggen. Scanned by and reproduced with the kind permission of @pharmakate.