BRANDYS, KAZIMIERZ

born Oct. 27, 1916, Ldz, Pol., Russian Empire Polish novelist and essayist. Born into a middle-class Jewish family, Brandys graduated in law from the University of Warsaw in 1939. Having survived the Nazi occupation of Poland, he joined in 1945 the editorial board of the Marxist weekly Kuznica (The Forge). His literary debut was the novel Drewniany kon (1946; The Wooden Horse), in which he relates the ordeal of the Polish intelligentsia under the Nazi terror. In a more ambitious, four-volume epic novel, Miedzy wojnami (194853; Between the Wars), he described from a Communist viewpoint the moral and ideological experiences of a generation of Polish intellectuals before, during, and after World War II. Following a partial relaxation of government controls over Poland's cultural life in 1956, Brandys voiced mild criticisms of the Communist ideology in the novellas Obrona Grenady (1956; Defense of Grenada) and Matka Krlw (1957; Mother Krlw; Eng. trans. Sons and Comrades). In his Listy do Pani Z., 3 vol. (195761; Letters to Mrs. Z), as well as in a volume of short stories, Romantycznosc (1960; Romanticism), he analyzed the moral and psychological transformations of contemporary Poland. His later works include Wariacje pocztowe (1972; The Postal Variations) and Nierzeczywistosc (1977; A Question of Reality). In the late 1970s Brandys helped found the underground journal Zapis (The Record), in which he published the essays on life in Warsaw that eventually formed part of his multivolume series of memoirs entitled Miesiace (1980 ; Months). Volume one was translated into English as A Warsaw Diary 19781981 (1983) and an abridged version of volume three as Paris, New York: 19821984 (1988).