GOETEL, FERDYNAND

born May 15, 1890, Sucha, Austria-Hungary [now in Poland] died Nov. 24, 1960, London, Eng. Polish novelist and essayist. Goetel became a writer after World War I, when he returned to his liberated country from Russian Turkistan, where he had spent several years as an Austro-Hungarian prisoner of war and later as a member of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates. In 1924 he published his colourfully written book Przez plonacy Wschd (Through the Blazing East), in which he described his experiences in Russia during the Revolution and Civil War. His short stories, Patnik Karapeta (1923; Karapeta the Pilgrim) and Ludzkosc (1925; Mankind), are based on his observations of the Turkic peoples. Z dnia na dzien (1926; From Day to Day) is a novel interesting for its use of the diary form within the main narrative as a means of exploring character. Goetel was chairman of the Polish PEN writers' organization (192633), chairman of the Polish Writers' Union (193239), and a founding member of the Polish Academy of Literature (from 1935). In his political essay Pod znakiem faszyzmu (1939; Under the Banner of Fascism), he did not hide his admiration for the Italian leader Benito Mussolini.