Ryszard Kapuściński

Ryszard Kapuściński
Born (1932-03-04)March 4, 1932
Pińsk, Poland
(now in Brest Voblast, Belarus)
Died January 23, 2007(2007-01-23) (aged 74)
Warsaw, Poland
Occupation Historian and journalist

Ryszard Kapuściński (Polish: [ˈrɨʂart kapuɕˈt͡ɕiɲski]; March 4, 1932 – January 23, 2007) was a Polish reporter, journalist, traveller, photographer, poet and writer whose dispatches in book form brought him a global reputation. Widely considered a serious candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature during his lifetime, he is one of the Polish writers most frequently translated into foreign languages.[1]

In an obituary published in Der Spiegel, Kapuściński was described by German journalist Claus Christian Malzahn as "one of the most credible journalists the world has ever seen".[2] Daniel Alarcón, a Peruvian-American novelist, cited Kapuściński as a formative influence together with Dostoyevsky.[3] The American journalist and reportage-writer Richard Bernstein, saw value in the "penetrating intelligence" of Kapuściński's vision and in his "crystallised descriptive" style of writing.[4] The British journalist Bill Deedes, who had witnessed the Rwandan Genocide first-hand, said of Kapuściński that what he "writes about Africa is authoritative as well as captivating. His account of how the Hutus and the Tutsis were drawn into that dark night of genocide in Rwanda is the most enlightening I have read anywhere" – even while, at the same time, proclaiming that it was Kapuściński who had "transformed journalism into literature in his writings about Africa".[5] Professor Philip Melling of Swansea University has concurred with this opinion, citing Kapuściński as an authority on the Rwandan conflict.[6]

He was celebrated by other practitioners of the genre, the acclaimed Italian reportage-writer, Tiziano Terzani, Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez and Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda having accorded him the title "Maestro".[7][8][9]

Biography

House where Kapuściński's family lived in Pinsk in the 1930s (photo from 2009) at Błotna Street (now Suvorov Street 43)

Ryszard Kapuściński was born in Pinsk (now in Belarus), Polesie Voivodeship, in the Kresy Wschodnie or eastern borderlands of the Second Polish Republic in 1932 as a son of Maria Bobka (b. 1910) and Józef Kapuściński (b. 1903), primary school teachers. Next year his sister Barbara was born. He was born into poverty: he would say later that he felt at home in Africa as "food was scarce there too and everyone was also barefoot."[10] In September 1938 Ryszard started attending Primary School No 5 in Pinsk. Summer of 1939 he spent together with his mother and sister in village Pawłów near Rejowiec in Lublin Voivodeship. When the Second World War began in September 1939 they came back to Pinsk after the city was captured by the Red Army and Ryszard returned to school there. In 1940 Maria, afraid of deportation to the East, together with Ryszard and Barbara left Pinsk and moved to Sieraków, near Warsaw. There they met Józef. Later the family moved near Otwock. Ryszard continued education in primary school in Otwock (1944–45).[11] He described his early life in the book Imperium.

In 1945 the family settled in Warsaw where Ryszard began education in Stanisław Staszic Gymnasium. He became an amateur boxer (bantamweight) and footlball player.[12] In 1948, Kapuściński joined the official Communist youth organisation—the ZMP—and served lower rank posts.[13] Kapuściński was the hero of the article published in the weekly periodical Odrodzenie reporting on a poetry conference organised at his school, in which the teenager's poems were compared with works of Mayakovsky and Wierzyński.[14]

In June 1950 he graduated from Gymnasium and started working for the Sztandar Młodych (The Banner of Youth), a nationwide newspaper founded in 1950 as the organ of the ZMP. In October 1950 he began his studies at Warsaw University (Department of Polish Studies) and in 1951 he moved to the Department of History after he suspended working for Sztandar Młodych till 1955. He participated in the Youth Festival in East Berlin staged in August 1951 in East Germany. This was his first foreign trip. From 1952 and till his death Ryszard Kapuściński was married to doctor Alicja Mielczarek (b. 1933). Their daughter Zofia was born in 1953. During the period from 1953 to 1981—the year of the imposition of the martial law in Poland—Kapuściński was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party (the PZPR). His attitude to the PZPR changed early on, "the decisive moment having come in the year 1956" (presumably a reference to the events of Poznań June and the process of de-Stalinisation brought about by the Thaw of Gomułka, and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956).[15][16]

In June 1955 he graduated from Warsaw University. After publishing, in September 1955, a critical article about the construction of Nowa Huta, a Cracow conurbation built on a site chosen as the "first socialist municipality in Poland",[17] which brought to light the inhuman working and living conditions of the labourers involved in the venture—a story which occasioned consternation before eventually winning favour with the Communist authorities unsure at first how to react to a fault-finding depiction of their pet project by one of their own—Kapuściński was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit at the age of 23.

In August 1956 he reported from Kiev and in September he was sent to India, his first travel outside Europe. He returned via Afghanistan (where he was detained at the airport in Kabul) and Moscow. In August 1957 he went for half a year to China (via Tokyo and Hong Kong). He came back to Poland by the Trans-Siberian Railway. Beginning with that journey to India undertaken at the age of 24, he travelled across the developing world reporting on wars, coups and revolutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He started learning English in India by reading, with the help of a dictionary, a copy of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.[18] He wrote about his first travels to Asia in the book Travels with Herodotus.

In 1958 he left Sztandar Młodych and started working for the Polish Press Agency. Shortly afterwards he also joined the weekly Polityka (where he worked till 1962). The result of his work for the weekly was the book Busz po polsku (The Polish Bush) published in 1962, a collection of his articles from the "Polish wilderness" that he went into to relate "the perspectives of forgotten, invisible, marginal people and so to record a living history of those seldom deemed worthy to enter the annals of official history" (in the words of Diana Kuprel, the literary scholar and translator of Kapuściński's works).[19] He was aggrieved at the indifference of the reading public towards the majority of his early books.[20]

In the late 1950s he went for the first time to Africa (Ghana, Republic of Dahomey and Niger). After honing his skills on domestic stories he was later "'responsible' for fifty countries" for the Polish Press Agency in Africa.[21][22] (Although a correspondent of an official state press agency, he never in his life asked a single question at any press conference that he attended[20]). When he finally returned to Poland, he had lived through twenty-seven revolutions and coups, been jailed 40 times and survived four death sentences.[23] In the English-speaking world, Kapuściński is best known for his reporting from Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, when he witnessed first-hand the end of the European colonial empires on that continent.

In 1961 he reported from the Republic of the Congo. He described his escape to Bujumbura and subsequent arrest in the book The Soccer War. In the years 1962–65 he lived initially in Dar es Salaam and later in Nairobi from where he travelled to other countries in Africa. He came back to Poland only for few weeks in 1965 but returned to Africa to live in Lagos and continue reporting. In April 1965 he travelled to Senegal and Mauritania which he later described in the book The Shadow of the Sun. At the end of 1966 he came back to Poland. In April 1967 he went to Central Asia and Caucasus. In November the same year he started working as a foreign correspondent in South America, based in Santiago. Later he moved to Mexico (1969–72). In 1969 he witnessed war in Honduras which he described in the book The Soccer War. In 1969 he edited and translated from the Spanish El diario del Che en Bolivia, the final literary bequest of Che Guevara.[24] Kapuściński analyzed the situation in Guatemala after a German diplomat Karl von Spreti was kidnapped. He published his reportage in 1970 entitled Dlaczego zginął Karl von Spreti (Why Karl von Spreti Died). He returned to Poland in 1972 and later worked for magazines Kontynenty and Kultura. In September 1975 he went to Angola after which he published the book Another Day of Life. In 1975 and 1977 he went to Ethiopia. The Emperor was written after his travels there.[25] In 1979 he visited his birthplace Pinsk for the first time since 1940. In 1979 he went to Iran to witness the Iranian Revolution. His book Shah of Shahs deals with this subject and the fall of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.

Kapuściński with Julia Hartwig in Warsaw, 2006

In 1980 he witnessed the strikes that took place in Gdańsk, Poland.[26][27] In 1988 two episodes of Arena were dedicated to him and his work.[28][29] He travelled in European and Asian parts of the Soviet Union (1989–1992) and witnessed the Dissolution of the Soviet Union. After this experience he wrote Imperium. He was awarded German Academic Exchange Service scholarship in Berlin in 1994. In 1999 Kapuściński talked about his life in VPRO in a series of autobiographical interviews with prominent people from the worlds of science, culture and politics.[30]

In a 2006 interview with Reuters, Kapuściński said that he wrote for "people everywhere still young enough to be curious about the world."[10] He was fluent in English, Russian, Spanish, French and Portuguese. He was visiting professor in Bangalore (1970s), Bonn, Cape Town, Caracas (1979), Columbia University (1983), Harvard University, Irkutsk, London, Madrid, Mexico (1979), San Sebastian, Temple University (1988) and Vancouver.[31]

Kapuściński died on January 23, 2007 of a heart attack suffered in a Warsaw hospital where he was being treated for unrelated ailments.[10]

Literary works

From the early 1960s onwards, Kapuściński published books of increasing literary craftsmanship characterized by sophisticated narrative technique, psychological portraits of characters, a wealth of stylization and metaphor and unusual imagery that serves as means of interpreting the perceived world. Kapuściński's best-known book, The Emperor, concerns itself with the decline of Haile Selassie's anachronistic régime in Ethiopia. The book’s story had a special meaning that was not lost on the people of Poland, especially as dissent against the PZPR was taking root. The Emperor was also the book that established Kapuściński’s reputation in the West. When it appeared in English translation in 1983 it received an immediate critical success.[32]

Kapuściński: We know everything about the global problem of poverty. What we can't figure out is how to reduce it in practical terms. [The moment we try] there appear obstacles that cannot be surmounted, and interests one cannot go against.

From an interview with Kapuściński published in Press magazine, 2006[20]

Kapuściński was fascinated by the humanity he found in different worlds and people, as well as the books of these worlds and people: he approached foreign countries first through literature, spending months reading before each trip. He was skilled in listening to the diverse people he met, but he was also capable of "reading" the hidden sense of the scenes he encountered: the way the Europeans moved out of Angola, a discussion regarding alimony in the Tanganyikan parliament, the reconstruction of frescoes in the new Russia—he turned each of these vignettes into a metaphor of historical transformation.

This tendency to process private experiences into a greater social synthesis made Kapuściński an eminent thinker, and the volumes of the ongoing Lapidarium series are a record of the shaping of a reporter's observations into philosophical reflections on the world, its people and their suffering. He had great compassion for the poor, the victimised, and the debased.

Kapuściński himself called his work "literary reportage",[33] and reportage d'auteur.[34] In the English-speaking world, his genre is sometimes characterised as "magic journalism" (in counterpoint to magic realism), a term coined by Adam Hochschild in 1994.[35][36][37][38] Kapuściński often introduced himself with the line "I am a poor reporter who unfortunately lacks the imagination of a writer".[39]

Italian journalist Tiziano Terzani and Ryszard Kapuściński shared a similar vision of journalism.[40] Jaime Abello Banfi, the friend and associate of Gabriel García Márquez, reports that García Márquez and Kapuściński, unbeknownst to each other, shared the opinion that the way to good journalism led through poetry (on account of the fact that it inculcates both the conciseness of expression and its aptness).[41]

Kapuściński considered the ancient Greek historian Herodotus a great reporter and his master. He wrote a book Travels with Herodotus where he shows that The Histories of Herodotus are timeless and the masterpiece of reportage. He also considered Curzio Malaparte, Melchior Wańkowicz, Ksawery Pruszyński and Franciszek Gil (1917–1960) to have been his literary models and stylistic precursors.[20][42][43][44][45] On some level, Pruszyński and Wańkowicz shared a very similar approach to facts with Kapuściński, believing that the general picture of the story can be glued from bits and pieces to reveal a truth as a wholly independent construct.[46] Students of Kapuściński's work observed correspondences between his work and that of J. M. Coetzee in that both writers were supposedly beholden to the theory of "the responsibility of witness".[47]

One reviewer saw in Kapuściński's mixing of subtle psychological reflection with vivid description an invitation to a comparison with Joseph Conrad;[48] Binyavanga Wainaina and Aleksandar Hemon made the same comparison, if for other, less laudatory reasons.[49][50] Kapuściński confirmed to Bill Deedes the fact that Conrad was one of his literary inspirations.[5] Neal Ascherson likened him to Egon Erwin Kisch (1885–1948) considered the father of literary reportage.[51] Kapuściński himself cites Kisch with approval as the "classic of reportage" who dealt a death blow to traditional forms of reporting by putting the person of the reporter at centre stage.[34] Certainly, neither Kisch nor Kapuściński believed in what might be called "journalistic objectivity": whereas Kisch thought it necessary for a (Communist) reporter to "engage politically" with his subject, Kapuściński would put objectivity as a concept out of court altogether, stating explicitly, "There is no such thing as objectivity. Objectivity is the question of the conscience of the one who writes. And he himself should answer the question is this what he writes close to the truth or not".[52]

Kapuściński's views on his craft were published in 2000 in the book in Italian Il cinico non è adatto a questo mestiere: conversazioni sul buon giornalismo (A Cynic wouldn't Suit This Profession: Conversations about Good Journalism),[53] the book in Spanish from 2003 (distributed for free) Los cinco sentidos del periodista (estar, ver, oír, compartir, pensar) (The Journalist’s Five Senses: Witnessing, Seeing, Listening, Sharing and Thinking)[39] and in his Polish book Autoportret reportera (A Reporter's Self Portrait)[54] published the same year. In 1987 Marek Miller talked with Kapuściński on the art of reportage and his life. These conversations were published in Poland in 2012 in the book Pisanie (Writing)[55] but broadcast in Canada on Kalejdoskop Polski TV as early as 1988. He was vocal denouncing manipulations and ignorace of big media.[56]

Photographer

Kapuściński debuted as a photographer in the year 2000 with the publication of the album entitled Z Afryki ("Out of Africa"), a photographic harvest of his journeys in that continent. "Every snapshot is a recollection, a remembrance," he writes in the introduction, "and nothing can sensitise us more to the fragility of time, to its impermanent and fleeting nature—than photography."[57] A sequel, entitled Ze świata ("From the World", published in November 2008 with the introduction of John Updike), comprising a cross-section of Kapuściński's photographs from all parts of the world, contains some truly outstanding shots.[58]

Posthumous and non-reportage works

In Ten Inny ("The Other"), a collection of lectures delivered in Vienna, Graz and Cracow, published shortly before his death, Kapuściński laments a state of affairs perpetuated by the myths which inculcate the notion of the Other as sub-human or non-human. He saw encountering the Other as the main challenge for the twenty-first century. The posthumously published Ho dato voce ai poveri: dialogo con i giovani ("I Gave a Voice to the Poor: Conversations with the Youth"; Trent, Il Margine, 2007; subsequently published in Poland as Dałem głos ubogim. Rozmowy z młodzieżą; Cracow, Znak, 2008) is a record of Kapuściński's interactions with the students of the University of Bolzano in Italy in October 2006;[59] while Rwący nurt historii. Zapiski o XX i XXI wieku ("In the Whirlpools of History: Jottings on the 20th and the 21st Centuries"; Cracow, Znak, 2007) is a compilation of interviews and lectures, reflecting Kapuściński's training as a historian and dealing with contemporary issues and their historical and cross-cultural parallels (including such issues as globalisation, Islam, the birth of the Third World, and the dawn of the Pacific civilisation).[60]

Question: Is it possible to describe a war on terror?

Kapuściński: No; this is a web. Its structure is immensely difficult to scrutinize. We have to concede that there are many things in this world which are impossible to delineate.

From an interview with Kapuściński published in Press magazine, 2006.[20]

Kapuściński's pronouncements on current affairs were noteworthy: he thought that the causes of the 9/11 tragedy, for example, were too complex to lend themselves to an exhaustively thorough analysis at present, although he offered an extensive and sophisticated exposition of some of the key elements of the puzzle in the Clash of Civilisations. He was critical on the Clash of Civilisations theory which he saw as an American vision of the world.[61] He told a BBC interviewer right after the attacks: "I greatly fear that we will waste this moment. That instead of meaningful dialogue, it will just be gates and metal detectors".[62]

In an interview granted in 2002 to the then editor-in-chief of the monthly Letras Libres, Ricardo Cayuela Gally, Kapuściński opined that the war on terror, owing to the asymmetrical character of the combatants engaged in it, could only be won—and indeed easily, within a month—through a (re)introduction of "Stalinism", a method undesirable for the sole reason that it would leave the world under the permanent "hegemony" of the United States, a circumstance that would spell the end of "the free society".[63]

In Poland, since 1986 Kapuściński was also known as a poet:[64] he privately confided in his Swedish translator, Anders Bodegård, that he considered this to be his primary identity.[65] In November 2007 the Canadian publishing house Biblioasis published Kapuściński's selected poems in English, I Wrote Stone, the first English translation of his poetry.

Although he was not the sole model for the role, Kapuściński was given a portrayal as the main character in Andrzej Wajda's 1978 film Without Anesthesia.[66][67] Aleksandar Hemon, the Bosnian-American novelist (who had previously impugned Robert D. Kaplan's stereotyping of "the Balkan mind"), in a critique of Kapuściński's Africa writings published in The Village Voice, accused Kapuściński's readers of turning a blind eye to "the underlying proto-racist essentialism" that informs his vision of and his approach to the cultures of the continent: "[Kapuściński] fumes against the racism absurdly based on skin colour, and would probably be shocked if told that his obsessive listing of essential differences [between "the African mind" and "the European mind"] is essentially racist".[50][68][69]

Honours and awards

Salman Rushdie wrote about him: "One Kapuściński is worth more than a thousand whimpering and fantasizing scribblers. His exceptional combination of journalism and art allows us to feel so close to what Kapuściński calls the inexpressible true image of war".[70]

Frequently mentioned as a favorite to win the Nobel Prize in literature, he never did. Kapuściński's dying before he could be awarded the Prize was bemoaned in the Swedish press as late as October 2010.[71] Since his death he has been offered many epitaphs in the press, such as, "The master of modern journalism",[72] "Translator of the World" and "The Greatest Reporter in the World",[2] "Herodotus of our times",[73] "Third World chronicler".[74][75]

Literary prizes and honours

In Kapuściński, the personal search for authenticity is always linked to his relationship to those around him. In his writings, he always seeks the universal in the particular, a trait that John Merrill's ideological opposite in U.S. academic circles, University of Illinois media scholar Clifford G. Christians, would applaud. Truth, Christians has written, is "reason radiated by love", thus individual authenticity must be contingent on links to the other, the "I" always defined by its relationship to "Thou".

Joseph B. Atkins and Bernard Nežmah, "Ryszard Kapuściński: The Empathetic Existentialist", 2002.[76]

Over the years, particularly since 1983 when The Emperor was named Book of the Year by The Sunday Times of London, Kapuściński was the recipient of many international literary prizes that brought recognition to his creative oeuvre: these included, for example, the biennial Hanseatic Goethe Prize awarded by the Hamburg-based foundation, the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung, which he received in 1999; or the Italian Elsa Morante Prize (Premio Elsa Morante, Sezione Culture D'Europa) in 2005, for his Travels with Herodotus (the new category of the Premio Elsa Morante, called "Cultures of Europe", in effect a separate prize awarded by the same jury, having apparently been created specially for him).[77]

In 2001 Kapuściński received the literary Prix Tropiques of the French Development Agency for his book The Shadow of the Sun, published in France under the title Ébène: Aventures africaines, which had a year earlier been named the best book of the year by the French literary monthly, Lire; the book also won the Italian literary award, Feudo Di Maida Prize (in full, Premio Letterario Internazionale Feudo Di Maida), for the year 2000.[78] That same year (2000) Kapuściński was honoured with the prestigious Premio Internazionale Viareggio-Versilia,[79] as well as having received the Creola Prize (Premio Creola) in Bologna (awarded for travel books and facilitation of intercultural encounters),[80] and the "Premio Letterario 'Della Resistenza'" of the Piedmontese city of Omegna (Premio Omegna).[81]

In 2003 Kapuściński received the Premio Grinzane Cavour per la Lettura in Turin;[82] shared the Prince of Asturias Award (in the category "Communications and Humanities") with the Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez; and was awarded the Kreisky Prize (Bruno-Kreisky-Preis für das politische Buch) for the entirety of his work ("Sonderpreis für das publizistische Gesamtwerk"; the award ceremony having taken place in Vienna in May of the following year).[83] As the doyen of literary reportage, he was the keynote speaker at the inaugural ceremony, held in Berlin in October 2003, for the Lettre Ulysses Awards for the Art of Reportage.[84]

In 2005 the Italian edition of Kapuściński's poems (which appeared in print the previous year as Taccuino d'appunti in the translation of Silvano De Fanti) won the state-funded Naples Prize (Premio Napoli).[85] To complete the round-up of Italian prizes, the next year Kapuściński was awarded a special category of the Ilaria Alpi Prize for the entirety of his career (Premio Ilaria Alpi alla carriera), one of the best-known of Italian journalistic awards, named for an Italian investigative reporter murdered in Somalia in 1994 (although the scope of the prize is limited to TV journalism, special categories of prizes for which he would not otherwise qualify—as also for example in the case of the Elsa Morante Prize—have been created for Kapuściński).[86] Kapuściński received honorary doctorates from the University of Silesia (1997), the University of Wrocław (2001), the University of Sofia (2002), the University of Gdańsk (2004), Jagiellonian University (2004). In June 2005 Kapuściński was invested with an honorary doctorate by the private Ramon Llull University of Barcelona, Spain;[87] and in May 2006, just eight months before his death, he received a similar degree from the University of Udine in Italy.[88]

In 2010, the Council of the Capital City of Warsaw established the Ryszard Kapuściński Award for literary reportage as a form of distinction and promotion of the most worthwhile reportage books which touch on important contemporary issues, evoke reflection, and deepen our knowledge of the world of other cultures.[89]

Selected books

Works available in English

Works currently unavailable in English

Magazine contributions in English (by issue)

Photography

Other

Documentary films

Kapuściński wrote a screenplay for a 1962 Polish documentary film 80-dni Lumumby (80 days of Lumumba) directed by Tadeusz Jaworski about Patrice Lumumba.[100] Imperfect Journey is a 1994 Ethiopian documentary film directed by Haile Gerima. Gerima travelled to Ethiopia together with Kapuściński. The film explores the political and psychic recovery of the Ethiopian people after the repression of the military junta of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

Documentary films about Kapuściński include Jacek Talczewski's Ryszard Kapuściński (Polish, 1987, the idea of the film by Marek Miller),[101] Filip Bajon's Poszukiwany Ryszard Kapuściński (Polish, 1998), Piotr Załuski's Druga Arka Noego (Polish, 2000), Pejzaże dzieciństwa. Ryszard Kapuściński (Polish, 2005), Gabrielle Pfeiffer's A Poet on the Front Line: The Reportage of Ryszard Kapuściński (English, 2004),[102][103] Beata Hyży-Czołpińska's Ostatnia książka Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego (Polish, 2008) and Olga Prud’homme Farges' L’Afrique vue par Ryszard Kapuściński (French, 2014, also in German as Am Puls Afrikas).[104]

Biographies

Polish scholars Beata Nowacka and Zygmunt Ziątek wrote the first Kapuściński's artistic biography Ryszard Kapuściński. Biografia pisarza, published in Poland by Znak in 2008.[105] The book was translated in 2010 to Spanish (Kapuscinski. Una biografía literaria) and in 2012 to Italian (Ryszard Kapuściński. Biografia di uno scrittore). Professor Silvano De Fanti from the University of Udine wrote Kapuściński's biography for the book Opere, published in Italian in 2009 by the Arnoldo Mondadori Editore in the Meridiani series which aims to collect in a single series all major writers of all times and from all countries.[106][107] In 2010, a book was published in Poland: Kapuściński Non-Fiction, written by Artur Domosławski.[108] Kapuściński's widow, Alicja Kapuścińska, sought an injunction against this publication, claiming defamation and invasion of privacy. Nowacka and Ziątek responded to Domosławski's accusations with a book Literatura non-fiction. Czytanie Kapuścińskiego po Domosławskim (Non‑fiction literature: Reading Kapuściński after Domosławski) which was published in Polish by the University of Silesia Press in 2013.[109] They oppose the accusation of creating a myth, and his own legend, as well as confabulations and opportunism, showing a selected and tendentious usage of the author’s life knowledge, the lack of comprehension of a literary reportage, manipulation with texts and quotations, as well as numerous factual and technical mistakes made by Domosławski. In 2013 the publisher of Domosławski's book apologized to Alicja Kapuścińska and her daughter.[110] In 2015 amendments were ordered by a court in Warsaw.[111]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Światowi pisarze: Najczęściej tłumaczeni polscy autorzy współcześni w ostatniej dekadzie (World Writers: Most-Frequently Translated Contemporary Polish Authors in the Last Decade, 1990–2000),". Polityka. October 7, 2000. pp. 58–60. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  2. 1 2 Malzahn, Claus Christian (January 24, 2007). "Zum Tode Ryszard Kapuscinskis: Der beste Reporter der Welt". Der Spiegel. Ryszard Kapuscinski gehört zu den glaubwürdigsten Journalisten, die es je gegeben hat.
  3. ↑ "Daniel Alarcón on ''War by Candlelight'': A Conversation with Daniel Alarcón". HarperCollins. March 24, 2010. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  4. ↑ Richard Bernstein (May 11, 2001). "The Shadow of the Sun: Africa, a Mosaic of Mystery and Sorrow". The New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  5. 1 2 W. F. Deedes (June 15, 2001). "A Good Man in Africa". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  6. ↑ Cf. Philip Melling, Fundamentalism in America: Millennialism, Identity, and Militant Religion, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1999, p. xiv. ISBN 0-7486-0978-4.
  7. ↑ Bożena Dudko (May 15, 2009). "Terzani pisał do niego Maestro". Gazeta Wyborcza. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  8. ↑ Lobo, Ramón (April 23, 2006). "El sentido de la vida es cruzar fronteras". El País. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  9. ↑ Luis Sepúlveda (2008). "Ryszard Kapuscinski: Simplemente un Maestro". Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 "Polish chronicler of Third World Kapuscinski dies". Reuters. UK. January 23, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  11. ↑ Nowacka B., Ziątek Z. "Ryszard Kapuściński. Biografia pisarza", Znak, Kraków 2008
  12. ↑ Mariusz Szczygieł (March 2, 2010). "Biografia Ryszarda Kapuscinski". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Bill Buford, "An Interview with Ryszard Kapuścińsk". The Storyteller. Spring (21). Granta.com. March 1, 1987. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  14. ↑ Krzysztof Masłoń (January 27, 2007). "Osobliwa skrytość Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego (The Remarkable Reticence of Ryszard Kapuściński)". Rzeczpospolita. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  15. ↑ Adam Michnik (January 27, 2007). "Rysiek dobry i mądry (Good and Wise Ricky)". Gazeta Wyborcza. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  16. ↑ In May 2007Newsweek Polska magazine wrote that Kapuściński worked for the Communist Polish secret service from 1965 to 1972 or 1977. "Teczka pisarza" (The Dossier of a Writer; an interview with Ernest Skalski). Nowacka and Ziątek in the book published in 2013 Literatura „non-fiction”. Czytanie Kapuścińskiego po Domosławskim (Non‑fiction literature: Reading Kapuściński after Domosławski) state that in the case of Kapuściński one can not say about Kapuściński's consant coperation, rather about three cases of secret service's extortion on Kapuściński of intelligence activities (during his travels abroad) from which he evaded either not writing the demanded "reports" or writing analysis which could be published in the official press.
  17. ↑ Cf. Jan Skarbowski [et al.], Nowa Huta: pierwsze socjalistyczne miasto w Polsce, Cracow, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1971. Similarly, the French urban sociologist, Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe (1913–1998), called Nowa Huta "ville phare du socialisme" (flagship conurbation of socialism).
  18. ↑ Mariusz Szczygieł (March 2, 2010). "Biografia Ryszarda Kapuscinski". Gazeta Wyborcza. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  19. ↑ Diana Kuprel, "Literary Reportage: Between and Beyond Art and Fact"; in: History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries, ed. M. Cornis-Pope and J. Neubauer, Amsterdam, Benjamins, 2004–2006, vol.1, p.384. ISBN 90-272-3452-3.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 "Antyciała: z Ryszardem Kapuścińskim rozmawia Andrzej Skworz" (Antibodies: An Interview with Ryszard Kapuściński Conducted by A. Skworz), Press (monthly magazine), No. 2 (121), February 2006, pp. 25–28. ISSN 1425-9818.
  21. ↑ "The Soccer Wars (excerpt from jacket)". Granta. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  22. ↑ "Kapuściński's "official" biography on the ''Kapuściński.info'' Internet portal". Kapuscinski.info. January 31, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  23. ↑ Donald Morrison (June 7, 2007). "Fellow Travelers". Time. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  24. ↑ Ernesto Guevara, Dziennik z Boliwii Che Guevara, intro. Fidel Castro, ed. & tr. R. Kapuściński, Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Książka i Wiedza, 1970.
  25. ↑ A film-script adaptation of Kapuściński's The Emperor, written by Marcel Łoziński for the film-director Andrzej Wajda in 1979, has never reached the production stage, having been banned by Communist censors (Kapuściński's original book was not affected). Monika Mokrzycka-Pokora (August 2003). "Andrzej Wajda". culture.pl. Retrieved January 2013. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  26. ↑ "Ze studentami rozmawia Ryszard Kapuściński" [Polish Students interview Ryszard Kapuściński about a revolution]. Wola (Polish underground magazine) (in Polish) (30 (236)): 4. 30 November 1987. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  27. ↑ Pracownia Reportażu (Beck et al., inspired by Marek Miller), Who Allowed Journalists Here ("Kto tu wpuścił dziennikarzy"), Independent Publishing House NOWA, 1985 http://kapuscinski.info/kto-tu-wpuscil-dziennikarzy.html
  28. ↑ "Arena: Kapuściński". BBC Four. 1988. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  29. ↑ Brittain, Victoria (25 January 2007). "Obituary: Ryszard Kapuściński". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  30. ↑ "Leven & werken: Ryszard Kapuściński (Paul Scheffer speaks with Ryszard Kapuściński)" (in English and Dutch). VPRO. 1999. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  31. ↑ Kapuściński R., "Encountering the Other", Universitas, Kraków 2007
  32. ↑ "Institute of Books". Instytutksiazki.pl. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
  33. ↑ Mackey, Robert (March 8, 2010). "Fact, Fiction and Kapuscinski". New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  34. 1 2 Ryszard Kapuściński, Autoportret reportera, ed. K. Strączek, Cracow, Znak, 2003, p. 42. ISBN 83-240-0347-9.
  35. ↑ Adam Hochschild (November 3, 1994). "Magic Journalism". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  36. ↑ Elzbieta Foeller-Pituch. "Ryszard Kapuscinski". The Literary Encyclopedia. Northwestern University. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  37. ↑ In an article in Slate Magazine, writer Jack Shafer called Kapuściński a fabulist who did not adhere to the basic rules of journalism."The Lies of Ryszard Kapuściński". Jack Shafer, Slate Magazine, January 25, 2007. As part of his criticism, Shafer cited the anthropology professor John Ryle. His condemnation was rebutted by Meghan O'Rourke in Slate five days later; O'Rourke contended that Kapuściński's invention of petty details to reveal a larger truth did not make him a bad journalist. O'Rourke, Meghan (January 30, 2007). "Ryszard Kapuściński: Defending his literary license". Slate Magazine
  38. ↑ The British journalist Michela Wrong wrote in the New Statesman, "Kapuściński would have helped his own case if he had been more consistent, and modest, about what he offered. If you present your work as 'magical journalism', of the García Márquez genre, best not simultaneously lecture a younger generation of journalists, as he did, on their imprecision. And if your prime years in the field were largely confined to the Cold War, best not present yourself as an eternal sage on the subject."Pilger, John; Wrong, Michela (February 12, 2007). "Kapuściński, More Magical than Real". New Statesman. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  39. 1 2 3 Santiago Real de Azúa (April 2004). "Melancholy defense of a fast-changing profession: A celebrated Polish journalist reflects on the future of the news". IDBAmerica. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  40. ↑ "Information on the website dedicated to Tiziano Terzani".
  41. ↑ Artur Domosławski Gazeta Wyborcza Cartagena – Bogota (January 19, 2008). "Artur Domosławski, "Kapu uczy latynosów" (Kapu Teaches the Latinos)". Gazeta Wyborcza. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  42. ↑ Tomasz Łubieński (b. 1938), "Uczeń Kapuścińskiego?" (Kapuściński's Pupil?), Gazeta Wyborcza, March 3, 2010, p. 13 (in Polish) ("...być może uważał za swoich reporterskich poprzedników Melchiora Wańkowicza i Curzio Malapartego, dla których liczył się efekt, wrażenie, szczegół o sile metafory...")
  43. ↑ K. Janowska; P. Mucharski (June 3, 2001). "Zawód: dziennikarz (Profession: Journalist)". Tygodnik Powszechny. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  44. ↑ Ryszard Kapuściński, Autoportret reportera, Cracow, Znak (2003). ISBN 83-240-0347-9. (Of Pruszyński and Wańkowicz, Kapuściński says: "Obu znałem osobiście, obu podziwiałem, kochałem i ceniłem." (I have known them both personally, I have admired them both, I have loved them and esteemed them).)
  45. ↑ "El polaco que denunciaba todos los crímenes". Kapuscinski.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 21 July 2014. Pruszynski, de quien se inspiró el gran reportero polaco Ryszard Kapuscinski
  46. ↑ Diana Kuprel, "Literary Reportage: Between and Beyond Art and Fact"; in: History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries, ed. M. Cornis-Pope and J. Neubauer, Amsterdam, John Benjamins Pub. Co., 2004–2006, vol. 1, pp. 382–83. ISBN 90-272-3452-3.
  47. ↑ Gosia Kasperska, "Coetzee i Kapuściński—próba zestawienia afrykańskich motywów twórczości"; unpublished (?) dissertation, University of Wrocław; published on Kapuscinski.info Internet portal, March 18, 2011.
  48. ↑ "Poland's Loss: Poland's Giant of Reportage is Dead". The Economist. January 25, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  49. ↑ bulletsandhoney. "African Bullets & Honey, the literary blog of the writer". Bulletsandhoney.wordpress.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  50. 1 2 Aleksandar Hemon (April 24, 2001). "Misguided Tour". The Village Voice. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  51. ↑ Neal Ascherson (June 21, 2001). "In the Pit of History". The New York Review of Books. Nybooks.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  52. ↑ See: Europa jest na szczęśie mała, z Ryszardem Kapuścińskim rozmawia Jacek Antczak, "Słowo Polskie" 1999, no. 12. Later published in Kapuściński's book Autoportret reportera, Znak, 2003, p. 40. Quote in Polish: "Nie ma czegoś takiego jak obiektywizm. Obiektywizm to jest kwestia sumienia tego, który pisze. I sam powinien sobie udzielić odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy to co pisze, jest bliskie prawdy, czy nie."
  53. 1 2 Ryszard Kapuściński, Il cinico non è adatto a questo mestiere: conversazioni sul buon giornalismo, ed. M. Nadotti; Rome, Edizioni e/o, 2000. Published as part of the series "Piccola biblioteca morale", No. 26., http://www.edizionieo.it/catalogo_visualizza.php?Id=494 ISBN 88-7641-414-2.
  54. 1 2 Ryszard Kapuściński, Autoportret reportera, Kraków, Znak, 2003. http://www.znak.com.pl/kartoteka,ksiazka,20,Autoportret-reportera
  55. 1 2 Ryszard Kapuściński, Pisanie, Warszawa, Czytelnik, 2012. http://czytelnik.pl/?ID=ksiazka&ID2=392
  56. ↑ For RFI and Euronews see his book Lapidarium IV (Warsaw 2000, p. 100). For The Economist see his book Lapidaria (Warsaw 2004, p. 467). For The International Herald Tribune see the article The reporter as poet from 18 September 1994 in The Independent by Ian Parker – http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-reporter-as-poet-the-polish-writer-ryszard-kapuscinski-may-be-one-of-our-last-great-foreign-correspondents-in-whose-reports-morality-philosophy-and-poetry-exist-side-by-side-with-fact-now-something-of-a-media-star-he-joins-the-modern-historians-with-a-new-book-about-the-end-of-the-soviet-union-1449539.html
  57. 1 2 Ryszard Kapuściński, Ryszard Kapuściński z Afryki, Bielsko-Biała, Wydawnictwo Buffi, 2000; 128 pp. ISBN 83-906554-9-7.
  58. ↑ Ryszard Kapuściński, Ze świata, introd. John Updike, ed. I. Wojciechowska, Cracow, Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy Znak, 2008. ISBN 978-83-240-1053-0. Excerpts
  59. ↑ "Publishers' info". Znak.com.pl. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  60. ↑ "Publishers' info". Znak.com.pl. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  61. ↑ "Ryszard Kapuściński, "Zderzenie cywilizacji" (The Clash of Civilisations), an interview". Chomikuj.pl. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  62. ↑ Magdalena Rittenhouse (February 12, 2007). "Remembrance: Ryszard Kapuscinski". The Nation. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  63. ↑ Ricardo Cayuela Gally (July 2002). "Entrevista con Ryszard Kapuscinski". Letras Libres (in Spanish). Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  64. ↑ "The reporter as poet: The Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski may be one of our last great foreign correspondents in whose reports morality, philosophy and poetry exist side by side with fact." by Ian Parker (The Independent, 18 September 1994), http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-reporter-as-poet-the-polish-writer-ryszard-kapuscinski-may-be-one-of-our-last-great-foreign-correspondents-in-whose-reports-morality-philosophy-and-poetry-exist-side-by-side-with-fact-now-something-of-a-media-star-he-joins-the-modern-historians-with-a-new-book-about-the-end-of-the-soviet-union-1449539.html Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  65. ↑ "Anders Bodegard o śmierci Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego". Instytut Książki. January 24, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  66. ↑ Tomasz Łubieński (March 3, 2010). "Uczeń Kapuścińskiego? (Kapuściński's Pupil?)". Gazeta Wyborcza. p. 13. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  67. ↑ "Bez". Bolekczyta.filmaster.pl. March 25, 2010. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  68. ↑ Rice, Andrew (October 1, 2007). "The Passenger", The Nation
  69. ↑ The Economist magazine said, "[Kapuściński] creates an Africa of his own." "African Memoir: Bus Rides". The Economist. June 28, 2001. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  70. ↑ (Polish) "Ryszard Kapuściński nie żyje" Gazeta Wyborcza (23-01-2007).
  71. ↑ "Björn Wiman: Anna Politkovskajas minne vore värt ett Nobelpris", Dagens Nyheter October 7, 2010. ("Polske Ryszard Kapuscinski gick dessvärre bort innan han fick priset...")
  72. ↑ "The Best Journalist in the World?". Europe Today. BBC. January 24, 2007. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  73. ↑ "Ein Herodot für unsere Zeit". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. January 24, 2007. Archived from the original on December 19, 2007. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  74. ↑ "Third World chronicler Kapuscinski dies". CNN. January 23, 2007. Archived from the original on January 27, 2007. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  75. ↑ kai/dpa (January 23, 2007). "Polnischer Autor Kapuscinski gestorben". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  76. ↑ Joseph B. Atkins and Bernard Nežmah, "Ryszard Kapuściński: The Empathetic Existentialist"; in: The Mission: Journalism, Ethics and the World, ed. J. B. Atkins, Ames, Iowa, Iowa State University Press, 2002, p. 221. ISBN 0-8138-2188-6.
  77. ↑ "Official announcement of the 2005 award of the Premio Elsa Morante (Sezione Culture D'Europa) to Kapuściński". Premioelsamorante.it. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  78. ↑ "Official photo showing Kapuściński receiving the Feudo Di Maida prize". Feudodimaida.it. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  79. ↑ "Official citation for the 2000 Premio Internazionale Viareggio-Versilia". Premioletterarioviareggiorepaci.it. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  80. ↑ "Premio Creola a Kapuschinski". La Repubblica. 30 September 2000. p. 9. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  81. ↑ Istituto storico della Resistenza e della società contemporanea nel Novarese e nel Verbano Cusio Ossola PIERO FORNARA. "Premio Omegna: I vincitori del Premio Omegna dal 1995" (in Italian). Istituto storico della Resistenza e della società contemporanea nel Novarese e nel Verbano Cusio Ossola. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  82. ↑ "Premio Grinzane per la Lettura a Kapuscinski: la motivazione" (in Italian). Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  83. ↑ "Kreisky-Preis-TrägerInnen 2003" (in German). The Renner Institut. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  84. ↑ "Lettre Ulysses Award Keynote Speech of 2003 (English version) on the official website for the Award". Lettre-ulysses-award.org. October 4, 2003. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  85. ↑ "Official notification of the Fondazione Premio Napoli listing Kapuściński as the recipient of the prize". Premionapoli.it. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  86. ↑ Vincenzo Sassu (March 10, 2006). "A Ryszard Kapuscinski il Premio Ilaria Alpi alla carriera". ComunicLab.it. Faculty of Communications Science, Sapienza Università di Roma. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  87. ↑ "Official notification of the Ramon Llull University announcing the award of honorary doctorate to Kapuściński". Url.edu. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  88. ↑ "Official announcement by the University of Udine of the conferment of honorary degree on Kapuściński" (in Italian). Qui.uniud.it. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  89. ↑ "Nagroda im. Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego – Ryszard Kapuściński". Kulturalna Warszawa. May 17, 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  90. ↑ Bilingual edition; tr. Michael Jacobs; Cracow, Fundacja Judaica/Centrum Kultury Żydowskiej, 2002. The 2001 Aleksander and Alicja Hertz Annual Memorial Lecture, No. 3. ISBN 83-916293-1-7.
  91. ↑ "Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski". Random House. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  92. ↑ Bilingual edition; tr. Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand and William Brand; Cracow, Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych Universitas, 2005. ISBN 83-242-0412-1.
  93. ↑ Encountering the Other: The Challenge for the Twenty-first Century by Ryszard Kapuściński. The opening lecture to the summer session at Jagiellonian University, in Krakow http://www.digitalnpq.org/articles/nobel/8/08-05-2005/ryszard_kapuscinski
  94. ↑ "Publisher's listing on Verso Books of London". Versobooks.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  95. ↑ "My Morning Walk by Ryszard Kapuscinski". Culture.pl. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  96. ↑ "Paseo matutino by Ryszard Kapuscinski". El Pais. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  97. ↑ Published together with: Jarosław Mikołajewski, Sentymentalny portret Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego, [with] Ryszard Kapuściński, Zapiski szpitalne; foreword by A. Kapuścińska (Cracow, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2008); ISBN 978-83-08-04263-2.
  98. ↑ Kapuściński's quotes (in Polish) from the book "Kto tu wpuścił dziennikarzy" http://kapuscinski.info/kto-tu-wpuscil-dziennikarzy.html
  99. ↑ "Ryszard Kapuściński. Photobiography". VEDA. 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  100. ↑ See a film L’Afrique vue par Ryszard Kapuściński (13:56)
  101. ↑ The film is attached as a DVD with the book Pisanie. Z Ryszardem Kapuścińskim rozmawia Marek Miller, published in Poland in 2012
  102. ↑ "A Poet on the Front Line". Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  103. ↑ Pfeiffer, Gabrielle. "A Poet on the Frontline". Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  104. ↑ "L'Afrique vue par Ryszard Kapuscinski". Arte (in French). Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  105. ↑ "Ryszard Kapuściński. Biografia pisarza Beata Nowacka, Zygmunt Ziątek". Znak (publisher). November 10, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  106. ↑ Kapuściński, Ryszard (2009). Opere (in Italian). Mondadori. ISBN 9788804557357. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  107. ↑ "Classics to enjoy: Meridiani". Mondadori.com. Mondadori. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  108. ↑ The book was issued by the Warsaw publishing house, Świat Książki, a Polish subsidiary of Bertelsmann, after the Cracow publisher Znak, who was Kapuściński's imprint of choice in the latter part of his life and were originally scheduled to publish Domosławski's book as well (however not a biography, but a book about perception of Kapuściński's writing around the world), withdrew from the deal.
  109. ↑ "Publikacje" (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. January 14, 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  110. ↑ An announcement by the publisher Świat Książki was published on October 18, 2013, in "Gazeta Wyborcza" newspaper. It reads (in Polish): Zarząd Spółki Świat Książki Sp z o.o. wyraża ubolewanie z powodu naruszenia dóbr osobistych Pani Alicji Kapuścińskiej i Pani Rene Maisner, to jest prawa do prywatności, dobrego imienia i godności oraz kultu po zmarłym Ryszardzie Kapuścińskim poprzez wydawanie i rozpowszechnianie książki "Kapuściński non-fiction" zawierające nieprawdziwe informacje, odnośnie Pani Alicji Kapuścińskiej i Pani Rene Maisner.
  111. ↑ We know the verdict on the biography of Ryszard Kapuściński Polish Radio SA 27 May 2015

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