Jan Lorentowicz (14 March 1868 – 15 January 1940; occasional

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

, M. Chropieński) was a Polish theatre director, literary critic, publicist, editor and book collector; president of the Polish

PEN Club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

(1925–27); and from 1938, an elected member of the prestigious

Polish Academy of Literature The Polish Academy of Literature ( pl, Polska Akademia Literatury, PAL) was one of the most important state institutions of literary life in the Second Polish Republic, operating between 1933 and 1939 with the headquarters in Warsaw. It was foun ...

. In 1919, in celebration of Poland's return to independence (1918) after over a century of partitions, Lorentowicz published the most complete collected works of the poet Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584), who had laid the foundations for Polish literary language.

Life

Lorentowicz was born in

Pabianice Pabianice is a city in central Poland with 63,023 inhabitants (2021). Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship, it is the capital of Pabianice County. It lies about southwest of Łódź and belongs to the metropolitan area of that city. It is the ...

, in present-day central Poland, in 1868, five years after the opening of the Polish 1863 Uprising that was eventually suppressed by the Russian Imperial Army. His parents had moved to present-day central Poland from the old eastern '' Kresy'' borderlands, escaping poverty and oppression. Jan obtained his secondary-school diploma at Płock by way of

home schooling Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...

and soon went to France, where he lived until 1903 and studied at the Sorbonne. While in Paris, he became editor-in-chief of ''Pobudka'' (Awake!) in 1891, and on 17 November 1892 took part in an assembly leading to the founding of the Polish Socialist Party (''Polska Partia Socjalistyczna'', or ''PPS''). A major controversy surrounded the Paris conference, regarding the potential use of terror by the PPS. Supporters of such violence against the Russian governorate included Aleksander Dębski, but the idea did not take hold and no terror attack took place in the following decade. In 1903 Lorentowicz returned to Poland and settled in Warsaw. He joined the editorial board of ''Kurier Codzienny'' as managing editor about the time of the

Polish Revolution of 1905 Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

, and in 1906–18 served as literary editor of ''Nowa Gazeta'' (the New Gazette). He co-founded the Polish Society of Writers and Journalists in 1909 and served as its president, 1916–18. Poland's freedom was in the air. In 1916–22 Lorentowicz was director of the Warsaw School of Drama and, in 1918–22, executive director of the Warsaw City Theatres. In 1919 he published a three-volume collected works of the 16th-century poet Jan Kochanowski, who had founded Polish literary language; in 1925 the book on

Władysław Reymont Władysław Stanisław Reymont (, born Rejment; 7 May 1867 – 5 December 1925) was a Polish novelist and the 1924 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is the award-winning four-volume novel '' Chłopi'' (''The Peasants ...

, commemorating Reymont's

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

; and the same year became president of the Polish

after the death of Stefan Żeromski. In 1926–28 Lorentowicz served as director of Warsaw's National Theatre, and in 1935 he completed the publication of his monumental five-volume

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

, ''Dwadzieścia lat teatru'' (Twenty Years of Theatre), comprising some 480 collected articles. In 1938 he was elected a member of the

after the untimely death of

Piotr Choynowski Piotr Choynowski (Warsaw, 27 August 1885 – 25 November 1935, Otwock) was a Polish writer, novelist and translator; an elected member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature from 1933.

and

Bolesław Leśmian Bolesław Leśmian (born Bolesław Lesman; January 22, 1877The exact date of his birth is disputed: the act of birth mentions 1877, Leśmian himself used 1878, while the date mentioned on his tombstone is 1879. – November 5, 1937) was a Pol ...

. He continued publishing until the Nazi German invasion of Poland, and died in Warsaw in mid-January 1940. Lorentowicz was buried in the city's Powązki Cemetery.

Legacy

Jan Lorentowicz received many awards for his contributions to theatre and its history, including the French Legion of Honour and the Polish Order of Polonia Restituta. He was well known for his vast collection of books, some rare and expensive. He was a Renaissance man with broad interests and accomplishments. Immediately after World War I he participated in rebuilding theatre in Poland's capital. His ''Dwadzieścia lat teatru'' is a primary source of information on the history of Warsaw theatre in 1904–34. To this day, Poland's interwar actors and cultural luminaries are best remembered through his monographs, including ''Spojrzenie wstecz'' (Looking Back), ''Dzieje teatru w Polsce'' (History of Theater in Poland), and ''Teatr Polski w Warszawie'' (Polish Theater in Warsaw). In 1989 the

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

was named for him. The memoirs of Lorentowicz's daughter – writer, teacher and award-winning set-designer Irena Lorentowicz – ''Oczarowania'' (Enchantments) show Jan Lorentowicz as a remarkable father. Irena, who never married, inherited part of his library. In old age demented and alone, she was found by a friend in the middle of her small Warsaw apartment, cutting up books with scissors into a pile of scraps. She died in 1985 and was buried near her father.

Works

* Jan Lorentowicz, ''Polska pieśń miłosna: antologia'' (1913, in Polish), book, 8 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Ziemia polska w pieśni: antologia'' (1913, in Polish), book, 6 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Polska pieśń niepodległa; zarys literacki'' (1916 and 1917, in Polish), book, 3 editions * Jan Lorentowicz (

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

), ''Dzieła polskie Jana Kochanowskiego: wydanie kompletne'' (1919, in Polish), book * Jan Lorentowicz
''Ladislas Reymont: essai sur son œuvre''
(1924, 1925, in French, and 3 other languages), book, 6 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Dwadzieścia lat teatru'' (1929 and 1930, in 3 languages), book in 4 volumes, 5 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''La Pologne en France; essai d'une bibliographie raisonée'' (1935, in French), book, 5 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Spojrzenie wstecz'' (1935), book, 12 editions in 3 languages * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Teatry w stolicy i inne artykuły'' (in Polish), book, 4 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Teatr Polski w Warszawie, 1913-1938'' (1938, in Polish and English), book, 2 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Młoda Polska'' (in Polish), book in 3 volumes * Jean Lorentowicz, ''Littérature, Théâtre, beaux-arts'' (1935, in French and ''undetermined''), book, 3 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Juljusz Slowacki śród Francuzów; szkic literacki'' (1927, in Polish and English), book, 3 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''La Pologne en France: essai d'une bibliographie raisonnée. Avec la collaboration de A. M. Chmurski. II Encyclopédies, langue, voyage, histoire'' (1938, in French), book, 1 edition * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Nowa francya literacka: portrety i wrażenia'' (1911, in Polish), book, 3 editions * Jan Lorentowicz, ''Géographie, sciences, droit, suppléments'' (1941, in French), book, 2 editions * Jan Lorentowicz (editor), ''Wielcy poeci romantyczni Polski: Mickiewicz, - Słowacki, -Krasiński'' by Gabriel Sarrazin (in Polish), book

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lorentowicz, Jan 1868 births 1940 deaths Polish male writers Burials at Powązki Cemetery Members of the Polish Academy of Literature Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta People from Congress Poland

Life

Legacy

Works

See also

Notes