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"Being There" in paperback by the late great
Jerzy Kazinski. I was fortunate enough to know
and "hang out" a bit with Jerzy before his
untimely death, and he was quite a character and
his writings truly reflect his life and lifestyle. I had
the book long ago, long before I met up with Jerzy,
and would love to own another copy. Thanks ULE
Please visit my shop at:
http://us.four.ebid.net/stores/Unique-Limited-Editions
:confused: Jerzy Kazinski or Jerzy Kosinski
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/05...2.MZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.scifind.co.uk/details-0553279300.html
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080...45444?n=283155
http://www.buy.com/prod/Being_There/.../30487850.html
Interesting write up.
Jerzy N. KosinskiJerzy Kosinski was the son of Mieczyslaw Kosinski, a classicist, and Elzbieta Liniecka, a concert pianist. All his life, Kosinski wrote about his traumatized childhood: how, as a small boy, he suffered through the atrocities of Hitler's invasion of Poland--his family forced into hiding, Kosinski was placed with a foster mother who died two months later, after which Kosinski wandered the villages of Poland until the end of the war, and by the age of 9 was rendered mute by his experiences. It was only when he was reunited with his father that he was able to speak again. He could not escape Poland until he was 24, when he contrived a university research project, got a passport, and defected. Once in the U.S., he did graduate study at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research, launched a literary career, and married a wealthy widow. In 1982, the Village Voice alleged that Kosinski, whose English was still problematic, relied heavily on freelance editors to do "the sort of composition we usually call writing." This charge, that Kosinski essentially did not write his own books, followed him to his death (he committed suicide), and even beyond it. The New Yorker ran a piece several years later raising the charges of plagiarism again. Kosinski's editors vehemently disputed the charges, noting that he was a rigorous reviser and editor of his work, but the charges were convincing, and are widely credited. Kosinski, in fact, was well known to be a pathological liar; among other deceptions, his supposedly autobiographical novel, THE PAINTED BIRD, which won the National Book Award, was entirely made up--thus casting doubt on his tales of his traumatic early years. However, the novel remains a shattering document, his best book and a real work of literature.