Maria DÄ…browska ([dÉ"mˈbrÉ"fska]; born Maria Szumska; 6 October 1889
â€" 19 May 1965) was a Polish writer, novelist, essayist, journalist
and playwright,[1] author of the popular Polish historical novel Noce
i dnie (Nights and Days) written between 1932 and 1934 in four
separate volumes. The novel was made into a film by the same title in
1975 by Jerzy Antczak.[2] DÄ…browska was awarded the prestigious
Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1935. She was
nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.[3] She
translated Samuel Pepys' Diary into Polish.DÄ…browska was born Maria
Szumska in Russów near Kalisz, Congress Poland, under Tsarist
military control.[2] Her parents belonged to the impoverished landed
gentry (ziemiaństwo). Maria suffered from esotropia, giving her a
"cross-eyed" appearance. She studied sociology, philosophy, and
natural sciences in Lausanne and Brussels, and settled in Warsaw in
1917. Interested in both literature and politics, she devoted herself
to help those born into poverty. In the interwar period, DÄ…browska
worked temporarily in the Polish Ministry of Agriculture while
venturing more and more into newspaper reporting and public life. In
1927 she became more involved in writing about human rights. In her
novels, plays and newspaper articles she analyzed the psychological
consequences of hardship and life's traumas in the world of ordinary
people.Maria married Marian DÄ…browski, who died suddenly when she was
36. Her second long-term partner was the 19-years-older Stanisław
Stempowski, with whom she lived in a common-law marriage until the
outbreak of World War II.[2] During the occupation of Poland, she
stayed in Warsaw and supported the cultural life of the Polish
underground. At about that time, she met Anna Kowalska and Jerzy
Kowalski, a literary couple. They formed a ménage à trois, and Maria
had a child by Jerzy in 1946, but he died suddenly in 1948. The two
women stayed together in a relationship for the next 20 years,
although Maria tried to get Anna married off again. DÄ…browska was
awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta during the Stalinist period. In
1964 she was one of the signatories of the so-called Letter of 34 to
Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz, regarding freedom of culture. She
died in 1965 at the age of 75, at the clinic in Warsaw.[2]
â€" 19 May 1965) was a Polish writer, novelist, essayist, journalist
and playwright,[1] author of the popular Polish historical novel Noce
i dnie (Nights and Days) written between 1932 and 1934 in four
separate volumes. The novel was made into a film by the same title in
1975 by Jerzy Antczak.[2] DÄ…browska was awarded the prestigious
Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1935. She was
nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.[3] She
translated Samuel Pepys' Diary into Polish.DÄ…browska was born Maria
Szumska in Russów near Kalisz, Congress Poland, under Tsarist
military control.[2] Her parents belonged to the impoverished landed
gentry (ziemiaństwo). Maria suffered from esotropia, giving her a
"cross-eyed" appearance. She studied sociology, philosophy, and
natural sciences in Lausanne and Brussels, and settled in Warsaw in
1917. Interested in both literature and politics, she devoted herself
to help those born into poverty. In the interwar period, DÄ…browska
worked temporarily in the Polish Ministry of Agriculture while
venturing more and more into newspaper reporting and public life. In
1927 she became more involved in writing about human rights. In her
novels, plays and newspaper articles she analyzed the psychological
consequences of hardship and life's traumas in the world of ordinary
people.Maria married Marian DÄ…browski, who died suddenly when she was
36. Her second long-term partner was the 19-years-older Stanisław
Stempowski, with whom she lived in a common-law marriage until the
outbreak of World War II.[2] During the occupation of Poland, she
stayed in Warsaw and supported the cultural life of the Polish
underground. At about that time, she met Anna Kowalska and Jerzy
Kowalski, a literary couple. They formed a ménage à trois, and Maria
had a child by Jerzy in 1946, but he died suddenly in 1948. The two
women stayed together in a relationship for the next 20 years,
although Maria tried to get Anna married off again. DÄ…browska was
awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta during the Stalinist period. In
1964 she was one of the signatories of the so-called Letter of 34 to
Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz, regarding freedom of culture. She
died in 1965 at the age of 75, at the clinic in Warsaw.[2]
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