TWO LITERARY DICTIONARIES

Reference books and dictionaries are among the most important working tools of the literary scholar. All the more will he or she welcome the appearance of the two works here under review. Wspolczesni polscy pisarze i badacze literatury is unique in the sense that it includes not only contemporary writers those who started their creative careers after 1918 but literary scholars and essayists as well. Volume 6 contains 236 entries, starting with Nadolski, Bronislaw (1903-1986), historyk literatury [literary historian], to Pytlakowski, Jerzy (1916-1988), prozaik [prose writer]. Each entry opens with a detailed biographical sketch, listing dates of birth and death (where applicable) and pseudonyms used. The biographical sketches are of great interest to the reader, whether or not he or she has enjoyed a personal acquaintance with the individual author. Take, for example, the entry on Zdzislaw Najder (b. 1930), a distinguished scholar of Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski, a man who has had a productive scholarly life, a career as a teacher and lecturer on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and in the most recent decade has held numerous public functions in Poland's restored democratic political system. He is able to look back on decades of active involvement in Poland's intellectual and political life and on having earned the respect and support of scholars and people in public life both in Poland as well as in England, France and the United States of America. His bibliography contains material of a scholarly nature not only on Joseph Conrad but also works with a public affairs content relating to his role as advisor to the president of the Polish Republic, Lech Walesa: Jaka Polska. Co i komu doradzalem [What Kind of Poland. What and Whom Did I Advise?] (Warsaw: Spotkania, 1993), pp. 379. The biographical entry on Nalkowska, Zofia (1884-1954), adds greatly to what we may have known and probably did not know of this excellent writer, author of Medaliony (Opowiadania) [Medals (Stories)], 1946, and of many other works. In the bibliographical section following her biography, we find listed in detail under each entry the content of individual collections of reminiscences, essays, sketches, translations of creative works into foreign languages and finally a