Jerzy Pilch (; 10 August 1952 – 29 May 2020) was a Polish writer, columnist, and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. Critics have compared Pilch's style to

Witold Gombrowicz Witold Marian Gombrowicz (August 4, 1904 – July 24, 1969) was a Polish writer and playwright. His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937 he published his ...

, Milan Kundera, or Bohumil Hrabal.

Early life and education

Born and raised in the small town of

Wisła Wisła (; german: Weichsel; cs, Visla) is a town in Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland, with a population of about 11,132 (2019), near the border with Czech Republic. It is situated in the Silesian Beskids mountain range in t ...

in the

Beskids The Beskids or Beskid Mountains ( pl, Beskidy, cs, Beskydy, sk, Beskydy, rue, Бескиды (''Beskydŷ''), ua, Бескиди (''Beskydy'')) are a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, stretching from the Czech Republic in the west ...

in southern Poland, Pilch studied Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

and became active in the city's underground literary scene in the late 1970s. He began making his name under the

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

in the 1980s, by writing and reading essays for the "spoken magazine" ''Na Głos'' ("Out loud"), a regular spoken-word event organised by the oppositional Klub Inteligencji Katolickiej ("Club of Polish Catholic Intellectuals") (even though Pilch himself was Lutheran).

Career

In 1989, Pilch began to contribute popular satirical essays for the Kraków-based liberal Catholic weekly ''

Tygodnik Powszechny ''Tygodnik Powszechny'' (, ''The Common Weekly'') is a Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine, published in Kraków, which focuses on social, cultural and political issues. It was established in 1945 under the auspices of Cardinal Adam Stefan Sa ...

'', which established him as a public intellectual. Pilch's best essays from his column in ''Tygodnik Powszechny'' appeared in three collections entitled ''Rozpacz z powodu utraty furmanki'' ("Despair caused by the loss of a wagon", 1994), ''Tezy o głupocie, piciu i umieraniu'' ("Theses On Stupidity, Drinking and Dying", 1995), and ''Bezpowrotnie utracona leworęczność'' ("The Irreversible Loss of Left-handedness", 1998). Also in 1989, he was conferred the Kościelski Award for his debut novel ''Wyznania twórcy pokątnej literatury erotycznej'' ("Confessions of an Author of Illicit Erotic Literature"), an ironic insider's account of the Kraków art scene. Pilch's second novel, ''Spis cudzołożnic'' ("List of Adulteresses", 1993), tells the story of a failed eccentric writer guiding a foreign guest on a tour of Kraków and through a curio collection of national myths and the absurd socialist realities of the 1980s. In 1995, actor Jerzy Stuhr made the novel into a film as his directing debut (under the international title ''List of Lovers''). The same year, Pilch published his third novel ''Inne rozkosze'' ("Other Pleasures"), the first to appear in English (as ''His Current Woman'', 2002). Pilch quit his work for ''Tygodnik Powszechny'' in 1999, left Kraków entirely, and settled in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, where he began to write a column for the weekly ''

Polityka ''Polityka'' (, ''Politics'') is a centre-left weekly news magazine in Poland. With a circulation of 200,050 (as of April 2011), it was the country's biggest selling weekly, ahead of ''Newsweek''s Polish edition, '' Newsweek Polska'', and '' W ...

''. A collection of texts from this series was published as ''Upadek człowieka pod Dworcem Centralnym'' ("The Fall of Man in Front of the Central Station") in 2002. Pilch's most successful book so far is his fourth novel ''Pod Mocnym Aniołem'' ("The Mighty Angel", 2000), a satirical take on the "drinking novel" genre, which was awarded a

Nike Award The Nike Literary Award ( pl, Nagroda Literacka „Nike") is a literary prize awarded each year for the best book of a single living author writing in Polish and published the previous year. It is widely considered the most important award fo ...

, the prestigious Polish literary award, the following year. In 2009, it was translated into English as ''The Mighty Angel,'' and in 2010, ''Tysiąc spokojnych miast'' was also translated as ''A Thousand Peaceful Cities''. Several of Pilch's books have been translated into Bulgarian,

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, English, Estonian, French, Lithuanian,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, Slovak, and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Death

Pilch died on 29 May 2020 from complications from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

Books

*1988: ''Wyznania twórcy pokątnej literatury erotycznej'', Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ("Confessions of an author of illicit erotic literature") *1993: ''Spis cudzołożnic. Proza podróżna'', Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ("List of adulteresses. Travel prose"; screen version under the international title ''List of Lovers'', 1995). *1994: ''Rozpacz z powodu utraty furmanki'', Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ("Despair caused by the loss of a wagon") *1995: ''Inne rozkosze'', Kraków: Wydawnictwo "a5". ("Other pleasures"; translated as ''His Current Woman'', Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press/Hydra Books 2002, ). *1996: ''Monolog z lisiej jamy'', Kraków: Universitas. ("Monologue from a foxhole") *1997: ''Tezy o głupocie, piciu i umieraniu'', Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ("Theses on stupidity, drinking and dying") *1997: ''Tysiąc spokojnych miast'', Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ("Thousand silent cities"; translated as ''A Thousand Peaceful Cities'', Rochester, NY: Open Letter Books 2010, ). *1998: ''Bezpowrotnie utracona leworęczność'', Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ("The irreversible loss of left-handedness") *2000 (with

Olga Tokarczuk Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk (; born 29 January 1962) is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual. She is one of the most critically acclaimed and successful authors of her generation in Poland; in 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize ...

and Andrzej Stasiuk): ''Opowieści wigilijne'', Wałbrzych: Ruta. ("Christmas tales") *2000: ''Pod Mocnym Aniołem'',

: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ("The Strong Angel Inn"; translated as ''The Mighty Angel'', Rochester, NY: Open Letter Books 2009, ). *2004: ''Miasto utrapienia'', Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Świat Książki. ("City of Woe") *2004: ''Narty Ojca Świętego'', Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Świat Książki. ("The Holy Father's Skis") *2006: ''Moje pierwsze samobójstwo'', Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Świat Książki. ("My First Suicide")

References

External links

Review of ''The Holy Father's Skis''
in

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

Jerzy Pilch
at Culture.pl
Excerpt from ''His Current Woman'' at polishwriting.netJerzy Pilch at Open Letter BooksExcerpt from ''The Mighty Angel'' at Open Letter Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilch, Jerzy 1952 births 2020 deaths Lutheran writers Jagiellonian University alumni Polish Lutherans People from Wisła Nike Award winners 20th-century Polish novelists 21st-century Polish novelists International Writing Program alumni Polish male novelists 20th-century Polish male writers 21st-century Polish male writers Neurological disease deaths in Poland Deaths from Parkinson's disease