Czeslaw Milosz

Czeslaw Milosz was a poet, translator, essayist and novelist. During the Second World War, he was active in Polish resistance. Later, he was a member of Poland’s diplomatic service. Between 1961 and 1978, he was Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Berkeley. In 1980, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His sojourn in America enabled him to observe his motherland from a distance and to reflect on what it meant to be ‘a child of Europe’. Among his best-known works, which are usually philosophical in nature, are Zniewolony umysł (1953, English translation The Captive Mind) and Rodzinna Europa (1958, Native Realm).