Tomasz Łubieński

(1938–2024) – a prose writer, playwright, essayist and literary translator, son of Catholic activist and journalist Konstanty Łubieński.

He made his debut as a poet in 1955 in the journal Dziś i jutro. He studied History and Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw. During this time, he published in Twórczość (1958–61) and Współczesność (in 1959 and 1962–65). In 1961, he spent a year in France. Upon his return to Poland, his writing was featured in Polska magazine. From 1971 to 1981, he worked at the Kultura journal. From 1978, he wrote for the Res Publica weekly (which he co-founded), initially publishing underground, and then officially after 1987. In the 1980s, he also published in such émigré magazines as Aneks and Zeszyty Literackie. From 1989 to 1992, he was a member of the Tygodnik Solidarność board of editors. In 1995/1996, he served as literary managed of Warsaw’s Na Woli Theatre. In 1996, he became part of the editorial team of Teatr monthly. From 1998 to 2019, he was editor-in-chief of Nowe Książki. In 2001, he joined Kazimiera Szczuka and Witold Bereś, and later Kinga Dunin and Paweł Dunin-Wąsowicz in running the TVP1 cultural magazine Dobre Książki.

In 1989, he helped set up the Polish Writers’ Association, he was Chair of the Warsaw branch in 1989–96.

Łubieński’s first book, the short-story collection ‘Ćwiczenia’ (Exercises), came out in 1962. Later, he he published volumes of historical and literary-history essays on Ludwik Mierosławski (‘Czerwonobiały’ [The Red and White]), Cyprian Kamil Norwid (‘Norwid wraca do Paryża’ [Norwid Returns to Paris]), and Jan Karski (‘Wojna według Karskiego’ [War According to Karski]), a biography of Adam Mickiewicz (‘M jak Mickiewicz’ [M Is for Mickiewicz]) and a book on the dramas of Molière (‘Molier nasz współczesny’ [Molière Our Contemporary]). He also wrote two novels, an essay, ‘Wszystko w rodzinie’ (All in the Family), dramas and radio plays, and collections of literary journalism. Among Łubieński’s plays, the best known are ‘Zegary’ (Clocks, 1968) and ‘Koczowisko’ (The Camp, 1974). Probably the most well-known of his books was a volume of historical essays, ‘Bić się czy nie bić?’ (To Fight or Not to Fight?, 1976, expanded edition: 1997), in which he pondered the conditions, advisability and consequences of Poland’s national uprisings.

‘The main subject of Łubieński’s works (his dramas and historical essays) is nineteenth-century Polish history, which he shows in its varied political, national and social, as well as cultural, ethical and psychological renditions, often striking a polemic against traditional, mythologised concepts, often in an effort to bring them up to date. He is especially interested in people, the individual dimension of the past’, Grzegorz Wołowiec wrote.

‘Tomasz Łubieński studied history at university, but devoted himself to literature. Yet he had a better feel for history than many a “professional historian.” We spent a long time talking about it, and he would always have a polemic ready. Yet he would never close a discussion in an authoritarian manner; he knew that, in interpreting history, the last word has never been spoken’, recalled Andrzej Skalimowski, editor of the history section at Nowe Książki.

In 2023, Łubieński’s ‘Osiemdziesiąt plus minus’ (Eighty More or Less) came out. This was the author’s autobiography, which can also be read in praise of life and a somewhat tongue-in-cheek tribute to old age. 2024 saw the release of Łubieński’s final volume of poetry, ‘Ulica Mazowiecka’ (Maazowiecka Street). It contains existential views of old age, which the poet depicts as a time filled with passions and heated emotion, a time of new questions and new reasons to feel joy and anxiety.

In 2006, Łubieński was given the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by President Lech Kaczyński.