Aleksander Rymkiewicz

Aleksander Rymkiewicz was a poet, playwright, and translator. However, he first graduated in law from the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius. From 1933-34 he was a member of the leftist literary avant-garde group Żaga-ry (Brushwood) with a first publication in 1933 in the Vilnius daily newspaper “Słowo” (“The Word”). His early work was dominated by visionary-fantastic and aesthetic motifs. Rymkiewicz endured World War II as a worker and member of the Home Army in Vilnius.

After the war he settled in Warszawa and worked successively in the Ministry of Supply and Trade, on the main board of the Polish Writers’ Union, and as an editor of a weekly newspaper. From 1954 he was an advisor in the Ministry of Culture and Art, and in the 1970s editor of the magazine “Poezji”. In the post-war period he spent much time in Warmińsko-Mazurskie, where he eventually died. His later poetry covered social-patriotic themes, reflections on the relationship between man and nature, and the native landscape. Rymkiewicz also wrote numerous books for children, using various pseudonyms. He also translated Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, Russian, and Hungarian literature and opera libretti into Polish.

In 1952 Kierst won the national poetry competition with his collection of poems Unarmed Victors - Olympic Poems. The small volume of only 28 pages was published in the same year by the Czytelnik publishing house in Warsaw. Like in Jerzy Kierst’s entry, the illustrations were contributed by Jan Miklaszewski (1907-82).