Jerzy Kosinski

Martin Kich (Wright State University)
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Jerzy Kosinski was born to well-educated Jewish parents in Lodz, Poland, in 1933. During his formative years, he managed to survive the horrors of the Second World War and the virulent anti-Semitism of the Polish countryside as he shunted from one “guardian” to another. In the decade following the war, he received an advanced degree in sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences and was selected to conduct further research at Moscow's Lomonosov University. In 1957 he emigrated to the United States, becoming a naturalised citizen in 1965. In those eight intervening years, he taught himself English, did graduate work at Columbia and the New School for Social Research, wrote two nonfictional studies of Soviet life under the pseudonym Joseph Novak, met and married the steel heiress Mary…

1242 words

Citation: Kich, Martin. "Jerzy Kosinski". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 January 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2558, accessed 28 March 2024.]

2558 Jerzy Kosinski 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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