Imiona nurtu.
Monachium [Munich]: Oficyna Warszawska, 1945. First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed to Archbishop Józef Gawlina (1892–1964), with his bookplate. Number XXV of 25 special copies printed on imitation Japanese paper and numbered in Roman numerals. Signed by Tadeusz Borowski, Anatol Girs, and a third, unidentified person. Text decorated with red initials and typographic ornaments. In publisher’s green paper-covered boards. 36, [4] p. / Extremities slightly rubbed, with minor wear and losses along the edges of the spine; otherwise in very good condition.
One of 25 special signed copies of Tadeusz Borowski’s first officially published book, inscribed to Archbishop Józef Gawlina, the wartime bishop of the Polish Armed Forces.
One of 25 special copies, signed by Tadeusz Borowski, Anatol Girs, and a third, unidentified person, with a presentation inscription to Archbishop Józef Gawlina (1892–1964). The inscription on the half-title is signed by the same unidentified individual whose signature appears alongside those of Borowski and Girs beneath the colophon. With Gawlina’s bookplate.
Imiona nurtu was published in Munich at the end of November 1945 as Tadeusz Borowski’s first officially published book and his second collection of poems. The volume contains poems written during his imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps, including works dedicated to Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński and to the poets Andrzej Trzebiński and Wacław Bojarski, who died during the German occupation.
The book was published by Anatol Girs, a Polish graphic artist and fellow concentration-camp survivor, who re-established his publishing house, Oficyna Warszawska, in Munich following liberation. Originally founded in Warsaw in 1938 by Girs and Bolesław Barcz, the press had been destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising, in which Barcz was killed. Imiona nurtu was its first postwar publication, completed on 11 November 1945 and printed by F. Bruckmann in Munich. It was soon followed by Byliśmy w Oświęcimiu (1946; “We Were in Auschwitz”), co-authored by Borowski, Janusz Nel Siedlecki and Krystyn Olszewski, one of the earliest literary accounts of Auschwitz by survivors.
The presentation copy is associated with Archbishop Józef Gawlina, the military bishop of the Polish Armed Forces during the Second World War. Following the war, Gawlina played an important role in the religious and social life of Polish displaced persons and émigrés.
The colophon records an edition of 3,000 numbered copies, together with 25 special copies on imitation Japanese paper, numbered in Roman numerals and signed by the poet and the designer. The present copy is the last of these 25 special copies.
Reference: Drewnowski, T. (ed.): Postal Indiscretions: The Correspondence of Tadeusz Borowski. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2007.
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Price: €9,000.00