Czeslav Milosz

Czelslav Milosz is a writer who is the author of this book. He was born in Vilna, which was a part of Poland but now is a part of Lithuania. He began his studies at the University in Vilna and completed them in Paris and then returned to Poland. He lived under regimes of capitalism, Nazism and socialism. The author says he could have chosen to leave Poland during the Nazi occupation, but he chose to stay and he does not regret his decision.

Milosz says he did not have any strong political preferences in those days. He did not believe in anti-Semitism so he probably leaned toward the left, but did not favor Russia. He worked as a free lance writer in Poland from 1945-1951. Milosz also served as a cultural attache in Washington and Paris. But he did not wholeheartedly accept socialism and eventually broke...