Solitaire on Two

Abstract

The monograph entitled "A New York Solitaire. The Polish Institute of Arts and Science of America. Jan Lechoń. Kazimierz Wierzyński. A Study of Selected Aspects of Its Activity in the Period 1939-1969" by Beata Dorosz is the outcome of a long-term study and laborious preliminary research which document the earliest years of the activity of the Polish Institute of Arts and Science of America and its two major personalities – Jan Lechoń and Kazimierz Wierzyński. Although the book is characterized by a documentary nature and is archive-oriented, full of dates, facts, lists and names, the author has managed to attract the readers’ attention by her lively narration, witty comments, titbits and anecdotes. Due to these, the readers are not only provided with reliable information on the activity of the Institute, but are also introduced to the atmosphere which accompanied the artistic and cultural life of the Polish community in America. Social reshuffling, personal animosities, diplomatic efforts, open quarrels and, finally, the ideas for the ‘dollar whip-rounds’, or generous donations for Polish artists-refugees, complement the colourful story about the people and organizations in emigration. At the same time, a specialist in literature will find here much quality information which illustrates the critical and scientific activity of Lechoń and Wierzyński. Liberally quoted reviews, discussions and lectures confirm their dynamic activity on the account of Polish culture. In fact, the compendium offered by Beata Dorosz delimits new directions of the research into the emigration milieu (and not only) of New York, and provides valuable contexts, in which the interpretation of Jan Lechoń’s and Kazimierz Wierzyński’s works reveal additional meanings.