A meeting with Mariusz Urbanek, a writer, journalist and columnist, was held on December 13 at Galeria Format. The author of “Zły Tyrmand” admitted that he was “a non-practising lawyer.” Although he did complete a law degree, he is glad that he does not have to work in that profession. His master’s thesis concerned the law on protecting the name of Józef Piłsudski, which gave the author an opportunity to share countless anecdotes about Marshal Piłsudski and the people around him.
One of Mariusz Urbanek’s better-known books, “Zły Tyrmand,” is—as the author himself put it—the reverse side of “Dziennik 1954” by Leopold Tyrmand. “I learned the truth about communism from this book. I read that diary with burning ears,” Urbanek confided, adding that without that book he would now be a different person. Writing a biography of the creator of “Zły” was therefore a kind of repayment of a debt. Except that, as one reviewer wrote, Tyrmand should be glad that he did not live to see the publication of the text.
Mariusz Urbanek began work on Leopold Tyrmand’s biography by compiling an index of the people who appear in the pages of “Dziennik 1954.” He then contacted them and asked them to tell him about the author of “Zły.” For several hours, he talked about Tyrmand with his friend— the famous Stefan Kisielewski, known as “Kisiel.” He even managed to reach Bogna from “Dziennik...,” who, according to Urbanek, is “one of the three most beautiful women in Polish literature.”
At the meeting in Bolesławiec, the author of “Wieniawa. Szwoleżer na Pegazie” revealed that, as a biographer, he is interested in figures whose life stories contain cracks. This is why he was fascinated by, among others, Tyrmand and Kisiel. Other figures whose biographies he wrote also had similar “hooks in their life stories”: Julian Tuwim and Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski. Urbanek is now working on a book about Jerzy Waldorff.
Mariusz Urbanek said that he had repeatedly been asked why Tyrmand, a declared anti-communist, had never ended up in prison. What is more, the author of “Zły” led a relatively carefree life at that time. According to the biographer, Tyrmand and Kisiel both devised their own way of fighting the system. They fought communism from the position of a jester, from the position of Stańczyk.
Urbanek also said that, when writing biographies, he follows a “very brutal rule.” He does try to win the goodwill of the relatives and acquaintances of the person he is writing about, but afterward they have no influence whatsoever on the text.
Mariusz Urbanek is a writer, journalist, biographer and columnist, and the author of such books as “Polska jest jak obwarzanek,” “Kisielewscy: Jan August, Zygmunt, Stefan, Wacek,” “Kisiel” and “Tuwim” (the latter two published in the “A to Polska właśnie” series). He has worked with the weekly magazines “Wprost” and “Polityka.” For many years, he has been associated with Wrocław’s “Odra.”
(GA information)