Mieczysław Grydzewski


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.
Grydzewski was born into a middle class Jewish family. During World War I, he began to study law at the University of Moscow. At the University of Warsaw, working under the direction of Marceli Handelsman, he obtained a doctorate of philosophical sciences. His 1922 dissertation was on the subject of French-Polish relations during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski.
In 1920, during the Polish–Soviet War, together with Jan Lechoń and Julian Tuwim, Grydzewski reported for service at the Press Office of the Polish Supreme Command.
From 1920, Grydzewski published and edited the Skamander monthly. In 1924, together with Antoni Borman, he founded Wiadomości Literackie, the most important Polish literary weekly of the interwar period. From 1926, it had a version for foreign readership, entitled La Pologne Litteraire. In 1936, Grydzewski published the monthly Przyjaciel psa.
At the outbreak of war in September 1939, Grydzewski fled Poland and arrived in France; after France's capitulation he went to the United Kingdom, where he stayed for the rest of his life. In Paris Grydzewski started publishing Wiadomości Polskie, Polityczne i Literackie ; Wiadomości Polskie were continued in London. The periodical was restricted by the Polish government-in-exile in September 1941 because of the published criticism of the Sikorski–Mayski agreement, and closed down by the British authorities in February 1944. In 1946, Grydzewski resumed the publication under the title Wiadomości, which he continued with Borman until 1966.
After 1957, Grydzewski established a contest and yearly prize for the best Polish book published outside of Poland and the best work printed in Wiadomości. The Wiadomości remained in existence until 1981, and the literary prize until 1990.

Publications