Black Torrent (Czarny potok)

Abstract

About the Author: Leopold Buczkowski (1905–1989), a writer, painter, and sculptor, was born in Nakwasza near Brody in Podolia, in the former Austrian Empire. Attending an Austrian school as a child, he would demonstrate talent in a variety of artistic pursuits, including painting, graphic design, music and literature. Starting in 1914, Buczkowski lived with his family in Podkamień. After World War I, he went to a grammar school in Brody where he also worked as a stonecutter and sculptor. In 1927 he started painting, and after his military service (1928–1929), he studied Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Buczkowski was later admitted as a free listener to the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he studied painting and worked as a lithographer for a printing press. In 1934 he returned to Podkamień, where he worked as a carver and participated in the local cultural scene. Buczkowski made his literary debut in 1936 with the play Murder (Zabójstwo), which he wrote for an amateur theatre production. At the outbreak of World War II, Buczkowski was taking part in skirmishes against German troops when he was compelled to flee, hiding in the woods, and in 1944 he survived a massacre that took the lives of two of his brothers. After moving to Warsaw, he took part in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Later he was interested in photography, and wrote his diary (Buczkowski, 1986, p. 12). Many of his texts were destroyed by fire in Czesław Miłosz’s apartment, and his remaining works would only be collected and published much later, in 2001. After the war Buczkowski settled in Cracow, where he worked primarily as a book illustrator. From 1950 until his death he lived in Konstancin, near Warsaw.