Diary 1954

Diary 1954 (Pol. Dziennik 1954), a book by Leopold Tyrmand containing his notes from the first three months of 1954.

Creation and publication history

The diary was created more than half a year after Tyrmand lost his job at Tygodnik Powszechny – along with all of the other editors – for his refusal to publish Joseph Stalin's obituary version dictated by the authorities. He was then given, like his co-workers, an unofficial print interdiction. He earned his living from accidental sources: private lessons, copy writing, and selling his stories for screenplays.

The notes were taken almost daily between 1 January and 2 April 1954, and occupied 800 pages. The last paragraph breaks off in the middle of a sentence. Tyrmand explained after years, "The last evening, tired with writing, as it often happened, I broke off the sentence intending to return to it the next day. But I never did. The next day Czytelnik offered me a contract to write Zły. Initially I was going to continue the diary, but the days passed by, suddenly full of the different circumstances and requirements."

In 1956, Tygodnik Powszechny published a fragment of the diary. After his emigration in 1965, Tyrmand deposited the diary in the editorial office of the Parisian Kultura, collecting it after four years.

Tyrmand resumed edition of his notes in 1973. Fragments were published in the London periodical Wiadomości between 1974 and 1978. The first book edition appeared in London in 1980, published by Polonia Book Fund. Introduction to the first edition included the sentence, "present book contains the entirety of the diary, unaffected by editorial considerations, moral quandaries, political necessities, social concessions." Meanwhile the cover displayed a photo of the manuscript, on which the text did not match the book's content. Notice has also been taken of English translation calques and style clumsiness. Many interlocutors of Mariusz Urbanek, author of a book Zły Tyrmand, were convinced that nearly all of the diary was created in the United States. On the other hand, Literatura Polska 1939-91 characterises this publication as an apocrypha.

It was only in 1999 that the original version of the diary, based on the notes opened to the public by Tyrmand's wife and kept at Stanford University, was issued.

The 1980 edition of Dziennik 1954 has been translated into English by Anita K. Shelton and A. J. Wrobel, and it has been published as Diary 1954 by Northwestern University Press (Chicago, 2014, ISBN 978-0-8101-2951-1). It was a finalist for the 2015 AATSEEL Book Prize for Best Translation into English.

Diary's contents

Tyrmand analyses the person of himself, his life and decisions taken, most of the space analysing the Poland of the Stalinism period, in which he lived by then.

Tyrmand, although he declares himself a firm anti-communist, gets involved in neither a political nor ideological argument with communism. Józef Hen observes, "in Diary, there is not a single word about the exiles, trials, Tito, Korea, spies, jail tortures". Sometimes the author expresses himself almost positively, for example about Vladimir Lenin. The criticism of the political system prevailing in Poland is concerned with its civilisational and aesthetical aspects. For instance in a few places Tyrmand complains about a dirt plague in Warsaw.

Diary contains a lot of personal criticism of both Tyrmand's acquaintances (often hidden under initials) as well as public personae. He criticises first of all moral attitudes of artists, whom he considered lackeys of the state. Tyrmand engages in a dispute on Ernest Hemingway with Zygmunt Kałużyński. He also describes in detail his discussions with his friend Stefan Kisielewski. In the whole diary 570 names appear, including those of the people beginning to be known at that time, e.g., Stanisław Lem, Zbigniew Herbert, Jan Lenica, Julia Hartwig.

Descriptions of love and sex affairs of Tyrmand abound. In a relationship at that time with an 18-year-old girl (in the first edition named 'Bogna', in the original 'Krystyna'), the author also goes back to his earlier connections. Many of the situations depicted in Diary were used by the author later in his novels Zły and Życie towarzyskie i uczuciowe.

The editorial changes in the first edition adjusted Tyrmand's image, so that it fitted better with the one he created in the 1970s. The writer set store by showing his views' constancy over the numerous years, "This diary, written at full manhood, re-read at the twilight of midlife, gives me a feeling of self-loyalty – which always seemed to me as desirable and worthy of sacrifices." The 1970s' corrections also consisted in elaboration and enrichment of some accounts, for instance the council in Związek Literatów Polskich.

A biographer Henryk Dasko notes that Diary 1954 would play a substantial role in autocreation of the legend of Tyrmand as an independent and unwavering creator.

Editions

• first abroad: Polonia Book Fund, Londyn 1980
• first official in Poland: Res Publica, 1989, ISBN 83-7046-008-9 (some texts like those about Soviet Union leaders were removed by censorship)
• original version prepared and prefaced by Henryk Dasko
  • Tenten, 1995, ISBN 83-86628-04-9
  • Prószyński&S-ka, Warszawa 1999, ISBN 83-7255-238-X (2nd edition)
• English translation of the 1980 version, by Anita K. Shelton and A. J. Wrobel, Northwestern University Press, Chicago, 2014, ISBN 978-0-8101-2951-1.

Bibliography

• Henryk Dasko, Wstęp do "Dziennika 1954", s. 3-34, Warszawa 1999, ISBN 83-7255-238-X
• Leopold Tyrmand, Wstęp do "Dziennika 1954", wyd. Res Publica, 1989.
• Mariusz Urbanek, Zły Tyrmand, Słowo, Warszawa 1992.