Maria Dorota Leopoldyna Czapska (6 February 1894 – 11 June 1981) was a Polish writer, essayist, and historian. She was born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

to Count Jerzy Hutten-Czapski (1861-1930), and Jozefina Thun-Hohenstein (1867-1903), and grew up in Przyłuki, the family estate near

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

. Her younger brother was

Józef Czapski Józef Czapski (3 April 1896 – 12 January 1993) was a Polish artist, author, and critic, as well as an officer of the Polish Army. As a painter, he is notable for his membership in the Kapist movement, which was heavily influenced by Céza ...

, and her relatives included Counts

Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Emeryk Hutten-Czapski ( be, Эмерык Гутэн-Чапскі), Leliwa coat of arms (17 October 1828 – 23 July 1896) was a Polish Count, scholar, ardent historical collector and numismatist. Hutten-Czapski was born Emeryk Zachariasz Mikołaj ...

, Emeryk August Hutten-Czapski, and

Karol Hutten-Czapski Count Karol Jan Alexander Hutten-Czapski, coat of arms Leliwa (b. 15 of August, 1860 in Stankow, Minsk Governorate , d. 30 January 1904 in Frankfurt am Main) was a Polish philanthropist. He was Mayor of Minsk between 1890 and 1901. Family Karo ...

. Czapska studied in Krakow from 1921 to 1925, and moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

afterwards, spending the next five years there writing a biography of

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

. The biography, ''La vie de Mickiewicz'', published in 1931, was used for a time as a source in establishing Mickiewicz's ethnicity and origin, which remains under speculation. In 1938 she published her second work, ''Ludwik Śniadecka'', and received the literary prize "Wiadomości Literackich" for her efforts the following year. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Czapska lived in Poland, and during this time was a member of The Council to Aid Jews, or

Żegota Żegota (, full codename: the "Konrad Żegota Committee"Yad Vashem Shoa Resource CenterZegota/ref>) was the Polish Council to Aid Jews with the Government Delegation for Poland ( pl, Rada Pomocy Żydom przy Delegaturze Rządu RP na Kraj), an un ...

. This led to her crossing the green border and moving to France in 1945, where she lived the rest of her life. For a short time, Czapska helped with the startup of

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 ...

, and after moving to France she worked on

Kultura ''Kultura'' (, ''Culture'')—sometimes referred to as ''Kultura Paryska'' ("Paris-based Culture")—was a leading Polish-émigré literary-political magazine, published from 1947 to 2000 by ''Instytut Literacki'' (the Literary Institute), ini ...

, a Polish exile magazine. She was also a member of Polish Society of Arts and Sciences Abroad. During her time in exile, her works were subject to

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

, which was discovered after

Tomasz Strzyżewski Tomasz is a Polish given name, the equivalent of Thomas in English. Notable people with the given name include: *Tomasz Adamek (born 1976), Polish heavyweight boxer *Tomasz Arciszewski (1877–1955), Polish socialist politician and Prime Minist ...

defected to Sweden, publishing the information which noted her name among many others. Later in life, she focused on literary works, namely ''Dwugłos wspomnień'', ''Europa w rodzinie'', and ''Czas odmieniony''. In 2014 two of her books, ''A Family of Central Europe'' and ''Through the Storm'' were published in one book for the first time in English.

Works

*La vie de Mickiewicz, Paris, 1931 *Ludwika Śniadecka, Kraków, 1938 *Szkice mickiewiczowskie, London, 1963 *Polacy w ZSRR (1939-1942) (antologia), Paris, 1963 *Dwugłos wspomnień (pisane z bratem), London, 1965 *Europa w rodzinie, Paris, 1970 *Une Famille d´Europe Centrale, Paris, 1972 *Czas odmieniony, Paris, 1978 *Gwiazda Dawida, London, 1975 *Ostatnie odwiedziny i inne szkice, Warsaw, 2006 *Une Famille d´Europe Centrale, Paris, 2013 *A Family of Central Europe and Through the Storm, Buenos Aires and Cracow, 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Czapska, Maria 1894 births 1981 deaths Polish essayists Polish women essayists 20th-century Polish women writers 20th-century Polish historians 20th-century Polish non-fiction writers Polish women historians 20th-century essayists Żegota members Polish expatriates in France People associated with the magazine "Kultura"