Commentary by Edmond Darboski

During the years 1988-1991 Czeslaw Czaplinski, a Polish born photographer who was on friendly terms with Jerzy Kosinski, conducted a series of interviews in the Polish language with the controversial author. It turned out to be the one (and only!) opportunity where Kosinski had a chance to talk at length about his interests. Acting against past precedent, he authorized the publication of these interviews. The book, KOSINSKI'S PASSIONS, was published in Poland in the Polish language (as PASJE JERZEGO KOSINSKIEGO) in 1993 and was an immediate smash hit, but American publishers - for some unknown reason - have shown only passing interest in the already completed translation.

Certainly, James Park Sloan's biography "Jerzy Kosinski" broke no new ground in illuminating Kosinski's complicated character. Little more than a rehash of the same old stuff we've read elsewhere, larded with references to Jerzy's mother's "pendulous breasts" and speculation about a possible Oedipus complex, it hardly constitutes scholarly research. Meanwhile, the speculation goes on and Jerzy has been muffled up because no one will take a chance on publishing what could possibly be an original and interesting book.

Send a message if you support Czeslaw Czaplinski's book initiative or want more information (but by all means do read on!)

Book Description by Czeslaw Czaplinski

"In 1979 novelist Jerzy Kosinski told a reporter: 'I'm not a suicide freak, but I want to be free. If I ever have a terminal disease that would affect my mind or my body, I would end it'. On May 3, 1991 Kosinski ended it. He wrote a note to his wife and friends, tied a plastic bag over his head and lay down to die in the bathtub in his New York apartment" - "The Death of a Mythmaker - A Major Witness to the Holocaust Takes His Own Life" (Newsweek, May 13, 1991).

Since that article appeared I have finished a book entitled KOSINSKI'S PASSIONS. It is the only biographical work in whose creation Jerzy Kosinski actively participated. An non-chronological mosaic, the book is a collection of my interviews with Kosinski on the passions which fueled his extraordinary life - photography, writing, film, social life, sex, friendships, skiing, polo, yoga, travel.

What emerges from those conversations is an objective multifaceted portrait of Kosinski. To put his words into context I have also included excerpts from comments and reviews by critics, writers, and people of the arts. KOSINSKI'S PASSIONS is also a photo album, containing over two hundred photographs from Kosinski's private collections, from the collections of his friends all over the world, and my own rich archives.

I have known Kosinski since 1980 and we had become good friends. I often photographed him and wrote about him for the Polish press in the United States and Poland.

At the beginning of 1988 I had decided to write a book about Kosinski.The book was going to be a scrapbook consisting of: original conversations, comments by others, reviews, fragments from his books, photographs, and documents. I told Kosinski about my intentions of writing such a book and titling it KOSINSKI'S PASSIONS, where each chapter would be devoted to one of his passionate interests. Almost immediately Kosinski agreed to cooperate and gave me a letter of approval.

Until the end of his days he repeatedly stressed that he would never agree to a conventional biography, and he continuously created myths and legends around himself. His truth, which is difficult to separate from fiction, which he himself called autofiction, is a term which he precisely explained in one of our conversations.

We met twice a week to discuss material for the book. The book was to be completed by the end of 1989, but the vast amount of material prolonged the completion to January 1991 when Kosinski incorporated his final corrections. My agreement with Kosinski stated that the book would be published in the Polish language and later translated into English, not because our conversations were conducted in Polish, but because Kosinski's books initially were published in English and only after many years were translated into Polish. Although Kosinski was born in Poland "The Painted Bird" was translated into the Polish language only after the passage of 30 years. In my case, Kosinski wanted the reverse and the book was to be published in Polish first.

I conducted our last interview on April 10, 1991 concerning Amerbank in Poland, which he founded and organized. He was to travel to Poland on May 10 to participate in its grand opening. Unfortunately on May 3, 1991 he took his own life.

There were many speculations and assumptions in the world press about the cause of his suicide. I myself talked about it in an interview conducted by Anthony Haden-Guest in the October 1991 issue of Vanity Fair. Since that time new facts were added and can be read in the book's epilogue "Life After Death". It is the only chapter Kosinski did not have the chance to approve.

Jerzy Nikodem Kosinski - the subject

Born in Lodz, Poland in 1933. A student of American Sociology, he left Poland for New York in 1957, and later become a U.S. citizen.

Jerzy Kosinski is the author of:

The Future is Ours, Comrade (1960)
No Third Path (1962)

(both collections of essays published under the pen name of Joseph Novak)

Novels:

The Painted Bird (1965)
Steps (1968)
Being There (1971)
The Devil Tree (first published in 1973, revised in 1981)
Cockpit (1975)
Blind Date (1977)
Passion Play (1979)
Pinball (1982)
The Hermit of 69th Street (1988)

Almost all of Kosinski's novels were on the best seller list, and were translated into over 30 languages, with total copies estimated in the millions. Kosinski won the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger for "The Painted Bird" (France); National Book Award for "Steps"; the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, best Screenplay of the Year Award for "Being There" (the film starred Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine) from both the Writers Guild of America and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, (BAFTA); the B'rith Shalom Humanitarian Freedom Award; the Polonia Media Award; and the American Civil Liberties Union First Amendment Award; and the International House Harry Edmonds Life Achievement Award.

As a Guggenheim Fellow, Kosinski studied at the Center for Advanced Studies at Wesleyan University; subsequently he taught American prose at Princeton, and Yale Universities. He then served the maximum two terms as President of the American Center of PEN, the international association of writers and editors. He practised the photographic arts, with one-man exhibitions to his credit in Warsaw's Crooked Circle Gallery (1957), and in the Andre Zarre Gallery in New York (1988).

In his film-acting debut in "Reds," a Paramount picture made with Warren Beatty, Kosinski portrayed Grigori Zinoviev, a Russian revolutionary leader. He is a recipient of Ph.D. Honoris Causa in Hebrew Letters from Spertus College of Judaica and of Humane Letters from both Albion College, Michigan (1988) and Potsdam College of New York State University (1989).

Kosinski died May 3, 1991 at his home in New York City, apparently by his own hand.

Czeslaw A. Czaplinski - writer and photographer

Born in Lodz, Poland in 1953. A student at Lodz University, he left Poland for New York in 1979, and later become a U.S. citizen.

Czaplinski is the author of an album-biography "The Styka Family Saga" (1989),an album of portraits of famous people "Face-to-Face" (1991), and the album "The Face and Masks of Jerzy Kosinski" (1992). He has completed a photographic book called "New York," a biography-album "Kosinski's Passions," and a richly illustrated book "Careers in America," which was published in Poland last winter.

As a journalist, Czaplinski has written over 400 articles. His photographic portraits and photographic essays have been published widely by prestigious American newspapers and magazines including: The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, TIME, and Vanity Fair. As a photographer, Czaplinski has participated in a dozen one-man and group shows around the world. This included an individual exhibit in the prestigious Museum of Art in Lodz, and twice at the National Gallery Zacheta in Warsaw. In recognition for the excellence of his work, Czaplinski has received many awards. Most recently, the "150 Years of Photography Medal" from The Union of Polish Art Photographers, and the "Gold Medal for Artistic Creation" from the Lodz Photographic Society.

His resume was published in "American Photographers - An Illustrated Who's Who Among Leading Contemporary Americans" (Facts on File, New York/Oxford, 1989); "Who's Who in Photography 1991-1992" (Five Corners Publications, Ltd., 1991).

He is a member of: The American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP, New York), the Foreign Press Association (FPA, New York), the Union of Polish Art Photographers (ZPAF, Warsaw) and the Association of Authors (ZAiKS, Warsaw).

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