Renata Gorczynski papers relating to Czesław Miłosz

The Renata Gorczynski Papers Relating to Czeslaw Milosz consist of letters, manuscripts, and personal papers documenting the personal and professional relationship between Gorcznyski and Czeslaw Milosz. The collection spans the years 1934-1991, with the bulk of the papers dating from the 1980s.

The collection is housed in 6 boxes and organized into three series: Correspondence, Writings, and Other Material. Box 6 contains Restricted Fragile Papers.

Series I, Correspondence , is organized into three subseries: Czeslaw Milosz Correspondence, Renata Gorczynski Correspondence, and Third-Party Correspondence.

The Milosz correspondence, housed in box 1, includes correspondence with writers, friends, publishers, and institutions. The correspondence, which dates predominantly from the early 1980s, provides some evidence of how the author's life was effected by his reception of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. Most folders consist of a single holograph draft of a letter from Milosz or a single incoming letter. There are outgoing drafts of letters to American President Jimmy Carter, Lars Gyllensten, Bill Moyers, and Östen Sjöstrand, and incoming letters from Waclaw Korabiewicz, Jadwiga Stanczakowa, and Andre de Vincenz, as well as American and Polish institutions. In addition, there are several folders of correspondence between Milosz and Gorczynski.

The Renata Gorczynski correspondence, housed in box 2, dates from 1986-87, and consists of incoming letters from Stanislaw Baranczak, Maria Janion, Piotr Kloczowski, Ryszard Przybylski, and Tomas Venclova. Third-Party Correspondence, also housed in box 2, includes copies of letters from Lech Walesa.

Series II, Writings , housed in boxes 3-5, is organized into three subseries: Writings of Czeslaw Milosz, Writings of Renata Gorczynski, and Writings of Others. The writings of Czeslaw Milosz are subdivided for essays and lectures, poetry, translations, and other writings. The materials include numerous holograph drafts of essays and lectures, including drafts in English and Polish for the Charles Eliot Norton lectures, delivered at Harvard in 1981-82 and published as The Witness of Poetry (1983). The Writings include individual poems and three poetry collections: Dalsze okolice, Trzy zimy, and "Wiersze, noty, epigraphy." Trzy zimy (1987) is a re-edition of Milosz's second collection, with essays by Polish literary critics. "Wiersze, noty, epigraphy" is a collection of poems and translations. Individual poems and collections are present chiefly in the form of corrected copies.

Writings of Renata Gorczynski includes drafts for two books edited by Gorczynski, Conversations with Czeslaw Milosz (1987) and Listy do Czeslawa Milosza, 1952-1979 (1992). The latter is a collection of letters to Milosz from Zygmunt Hertz. These drafts are followed by materials for interviews with Milosz, as well as typescripts of actual conversations with the poet.

Writings of Others consists chiefly of photocopies of poems.

Series III, Other Material , housed in box 5, is organized into subseries for Material Relating to Czeslaw Milosz and Miscellaneous Material. Material Relating to Czeslaw Milosz consists of personal papers, such as addresses, itineraries, lists, and notes, as well as several snapshots and a commercial audio recording of Milosz reading both from his own work and the work of Mickiewicz. Miscellaneous Material consists of a commercial audio recording of readings from Mickiewicz's Pan Tadeusz and photographs of Zbigniew Herbert's apartment.

Restricted Fragile Papers are housed in box 6.