A New Foundation
In Bedzin near Katowice, in the heart of Polish Silesia, members of the Solidarity Labor Union established a foundation with a Latin name, CIVILISATIO, whose aim is fourfold: to support scholarly work and establish scholarships for children of poor families; to conduct charity work; to maintain contacts with like-minded centers and foundations in the West and in the East; to promote Christian values in post-communist society. The present chairman of the Foundation is Mr. Stanislaw Grabowski, and the address is Fundacja CIVILISATIO, ul. Saczewskiego 15, 42-500 Bedzin, Poland. They keep their pennies in Gornoslaski Bank Gospodarczy S.A., oddzial w Bedzinie, Konto Nr. 632012-879-132-3. Appropriate scholarly materials, periodicals, dictionaries and books for children are welcome.
Thomas Hoisington Receives the PEN Translation Award for Ignacy Krasicki's The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom
Thomas Hoisington, a noted specialist in Polish literature, has received the 1993 PEN Translation Award, a prestigious national literary prize established in 1963. On Krasicki's novel and its translation, see SR, XIII, 2 (April 1993). Hoisington holds a joint administrative and academic position at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
A Publication on Sacrum in Polish Literature
Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature will publish a special Fall-Winter 1993 issue devoted to Polish literature and titled "Sacrum in Polish Literature: A Poetics of Presence and Absence" featuring articles by leading Polish scholars and critics on works by Witold Gombrowicz, Maurycy Goslawski, Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski, Maria Kuncewicz, Wieslaw Mysliwski, Tadeusz Nowak, and Leopold Tyrmand. The guest editor is Professor Halina Filipowicz, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. Inquiries may be sent to Professor Joseph Schwartz, Editor, Renascence, Brooks Hall 200. Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI 53233.
Kosciuszko Museum in Kosciusko, Mississippi
In 1984, people in the town of Kosciusko, MS, contributed $186,000 to build a museum and information center on the Natchez Trace Parkway, at the junction of Highway 35 South. It now houses numerous Kosciuszko memorabilia including a table top display of the West Point fortifications designed by Thaddeus Kosciuszko. Mr. Stan Garczynski (a SR subscriber!) contributed to the most recent additions to the exhibit. Visitors are invited; 3,700 visit every month. For more information contact Willa G. Sanders, Kosciusko-Attala Chamber of Commerce, P.O.Box 696, Kosciusko, MS 39090, tel. (601) 289-2981.
Polish Tatra Mountains Spell B-a-r-g-a-i-n
Our editorial staff's recent visit to Zakopane, Poland's foremost winter and summer mountain resort, was graced by good weather and incredibly low prices. An adequate double room with bath and three meals a day cost $32 at Anna-Maria, a hotel-pension in a quiet corner of Zakopane. Parking is free. In addition to bargain prices, Anna-Maria features easy access to Dolina Bialego, one of the loveliest walking areas in the Tatra National Park. Anna-Maria is located at Male Zywczanskie 28, 34-100 Zakopane, Poland, tel./fax (165)145-25. Reservations are taken by fax or phone by an English-speaking manager. The staff is cheerful and helpful. One-day deposit is required.
A few houses away from Anna-Maria, we inspected first-rate rooms with spacious and sparkling baths, TV and access to kitchen, in a spotless whitewashed cottage (see picture below). No meals, but the rooms rent for Zl 160,000, or $10/day. They can be rented from Mrs. Danuta Kalinska, Male Zywczanskie 23a, Zakopane 34-100, tel. (165) 123-85.
Mountain chalets are cheap and charming. At Kalatowki, a mountain valley near Zakopane (30 min. of easy mountain climbing ), a two-room suite with bath rents for Zl 500,000, or $30. Breakfast is included; other meals can be taken in the restaurant. Schronisko PTTK Kalatowki, Box 194, 34-500 Zakopane, tel./fax (165)636-44.
There are hundreds of Rooms-Zimmer-Pokoje signs all over Zakopane. Bargains are beckoning. In 1993, the Polish Tatras resemble the Austrian Alps in the 1950s, when an American tourist could get meals and accommodations from impecunious locals for a few dollars.
The Tatras have their own micro-climate and are characterized by easy access from valleys to high mountains. In the Tatras, you may start your walk in shorts and a T-shirt, and within an hour find yourself in icy weather on top of some snowy peak.
Among the loveliest walks is the easy climb to Dolina Chocholowska whose serenity is unsurpassed (see photos on opposite page); and the steep climb to Nosal which provides some of the most spectacular views of Zakopane and environs.