Stefania Kossowska, née Szurlej (23 September 1909, Lwów – 15 September 2003, London) was a Polish literary editor, political activist, writer and broadcaster.
Stefania Kossowska, née Szurlej (23 September 1909, Lwów – 15 September 2003, London) was a Polish literary editor, political activist, writer and broadcaster.
Her father was a noted lawyer, Stanisław Szurlej, and her mother, Jadwiga Ciepielowska, was of Polish Jewish descent. [1] The family moved from her native Lwów in Galicia, (now Lviv in Ukraine) to Warsaw in 1920. There, she attended secondary school and began studies for a law degree at the University of Warsaw. [2] She began her writing career while a student contributing to a women's review, "Bluszcz”. Later her journalism encompassed titles such as, the Warsaw evening paper, Wieczór Warszawski, ABC and Prosto z mostu. [3]
Before the war she made a brief excursion to Italy, as a press correspondent and there in Sicily, she met Polish artist, Adam Kossowski. They married in the autumn of 1938. [3] Following the 1939 invasion of Poland, she slipped out of the country, with her parents, through the so-called "green border" into Romania and on to France, to await her husband who was detained in Poland. With France soon occupied by German forces, she moved to the United Kingdom, as an official of the Polish government-in-exile. From 1940 onwards she became a contributor to London and Paris-based publications, among them, Wiadomości Polskie, Polityczne i Literackie , ”Biuletyn Światpolu”, The Polish Daily , "Polska Walcząca”, writing regular commentary and sketches. She also worked for the Polish section, BBC Radio. She was separated from her husband by the war and did not see him for four years. He had fled eastwards in Poland, was arrested by Soviet troops and survived the gulag. He did not reach the West until 1943, with Anders' Army, and was subsequently reunited with his wife in London. [4]
Between 1953 and 1981 Kossowska was increasingly involved with the editing of the weekly, Wiadomości, and contributing the "News from London" column, under the pseudonym, Big Ben. [3] In 1973 she became the paper's editor-in-chief. Between 1954 and 1993 she contributed to Radio Free Europe. She was a signatory of the petition of protest against constitutional changes in Poland, known as the Letter of 59 . [5] From 1956 to 1992 she was a member of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad (Związek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyźnie). In the 1980s she was a cultural adviser to the Polish Cultural Foundation (1950), Polska Fundacja Kulturalna in London. In 1994 she donated the Wiadomści archives to the Library of the University of Torun. [3] She was the custodian of her late husband's artistic legacy and editor and author of several books. [6]
She was widowed in 1986. Her own death followed in 2003. She was buried next to her husband, Adam, in the grounds of Aylesford Priory, Kent. [3]
Telewizja Polska S.A., also known in English as Polish Television, is a public service broadcaster in Poland, founded in 1952. It is the oldest and largest Polish television network.
Adam Kossowski was a Polish artist, born in Nowy Sącz, notable for his works for the Catholic Church in England, where he arrived in 1943 as a refugee from Soviet labour camps and was invited in 1944 to join the Guild of Catholic Artists and Craftsmen.
Zofia Romanowicz was a Polish émigré novelist, essayist, poet, and translator and an eminent member of the Polish literary and cultural communities in exile as well as Parisian intellectual circles.
Aylesford Priory, or "The Friars" was founded in 1242 when members of the Carmelite order arrived in England from Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Richard de Grey, a crusader, sponsored them, and conveyed to the order a parcel of land located on his manor in Aylesford in Kent. The estate came back into the ownership of the Carmelite order in 1949. After refurbishment, which revealed 15th century remnants, the manor house was Grade I listed in 1959. After subsequent work on site, the 15th century gatehouse and the NE section of the wall were also Grade I listed on 25 February 1987. The priory now contains an array of contemporary artworks by notable artists. It is a pilgrimage destination of national significance.
Gabriela Anna Kownacka was a Polish film and stage actress, best known for playing in the Polish TV series Rodzina zastępcza. Kownacka was a Lutheran.
Mieczysław Grydzewski was a Polish historian and journalist, founder and editor-in-chief of Wiadomości Literackie weekly. Wiadomości was continued as a major émigré journal during World War II and until 1981. During his life in Poland and abroad, Grydzewski published numerous books, journal articles, compendiums and other works, often anonymously or under assumed names.
Józef Stanisław Łobodowski was a Polish poet and political thinker.
Magdalena Jolanta Koch is a Polish academic, a specialist in Serbian and Croatian literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, she has specialized in Gender studies, identity, transculturalism of the Balkans as well as modern Serbian and Croatian drama.
Jan Fryling was a Polish diplomat, writer, journalist and president of the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America in the years 1972–1977.
Konstancja Kochaniec is a Polish classical and film music composer. She has pursued independent creative activities, such as film music, television, theater music, solo music, chamber music, electronic music, as well as in the field of synthesis of the arts.
Maria Dorota Leopoldyna Czapska was a Polish writer, essayist and historian. She was born in Prague to Count Jerzy Hutten-Czapski (1861–1930), and Jozefina Thun-Hohenstein (1867–1903), and grew up in Przyłuki, the family estate near Minsk. Her younger brother was Józef Czapski, and her relatives included Counts Emeryk Hutten-Czapski, Emeryk August Hutten-Czapski, and Karol Hutten-Czapski.
Jolanta Beata Fedak was a Polish politician who served as Minister of Labour and Social Policy from 2007 to 2011.
Beata Edyta Tadla is a Polish radio and TV journalist and TV presenter.
Adam Szymon Pragier was a Polish economist, Doctor of Jurisprudence professor at the Free Polish University, socialist activist, politician, member of the Polish Legions and writer. A minister of information and documentation in the Polish government-in-exile in London, he upheld for the rest of his life its legal continuity in the struggle for the restoration of Poland as a sovereign state.
Wiadomości was a Polish cultural weekly magazine published in London between 1946 and 1981. The journal was the continuity title of the pre-World War II weekly, Wiadomości Literackie, published in Warsaw (1924–1939) and subsequently of the "Wiadomości Polskie, Polityczne i Literackie", published during the War (1940–1944) in Paris and London.
Stanisław Frenkiel RWA was a Polish expressionist painter, graphic artist, art historian, teacher, academic and writer.
Adam Lizakowski is a Polish poet, translator, and photographer. His work has been published in over one hundred literary magazines in Poland and the United States.
Anita Gargas Wojciechowska is a Polish journalist specialising in investigative journalism and a mathematician by education. She is a journalist of the weekly Gazeta Polska and the daily Gazeta Polska Codziennie, where she is the head of the investigative section. From 1 August 2006 to 19 February 2010, she was a deputy director of the news desk and the vice-director for journalism at TVP1, and the author of the programme Misja specjalna.
Anna Frajlich, known also as Anna Frajlich-Zając, is a Polish-American poet and a Senior Lecturer Emerita at the Department of Slavic Languages and Associate Faculty Member, Harriman Institute at Columbia University in New York City, where she taught Polish language and literature for over three decades.
Telewizja Republika or TV Republika is a Polish television station, whose editor-in-chief is Tomasz Sakiewicz. The channel can be received via satellite, via the Internet and terrestrial in the DVB-T system, as well as in the DVB-T2 system. From 2022, the channel broadcasts its program 24 hours a day. The live portion of its output in Polish is broadcast every day for 16 hours, from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., while between 11:00 p.m. and midnight, the programs of the English-speaking editorial staff of the channel are broadcast.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
