born June 30, 1911, Šateiniai, Lith., Russian Empire
died Aug. 14, 2004, Kraków, Pol.
Polish-born U.S. author, translator, and critic.
Miłosz was a socialist by the time he published his first book of verse at age 21. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, he was active in the resistance. After serving briefly as a diplomat for communist Poland, he immigrated to the U.S., where he taught for decades at the University of California at Berkeley; he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1970. His poetry, including such collections as Bells in Winter (1978), is noted for its classical style and preoccupation with philosophical and political issues. His well-known essay collection The Captive Mind (1953) condemned the accommodation of many Polish intellectuals to communism. U.S. critic Helen Vendler wrote that Miłosz's Treatise on Poetry (1957) seemed to her "the most comprehensive and moving poem" of the latter half of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980.