Perhaps no writer’s trajectory more aptly reflects the dramatic events in 20th-century East-Central Europe than the literary career of Polish Nobel Laureate Czesław Miłosz. His biography encompasses almost a whole centenary: as a witness of both World Wars, the Russian Revolution and the Holocaust, Miłosz experienced first hand some of the most tragic calamities of our times and survived the ravages of several totalitarian regimes. Not surprisingly, after Miłosz ended up in exile in the early 1950s, one of the primary concerns of his writings became to diagnose the forces that have shaped post-Enlightenment Europe and its ideological offshoots throughout the 20th century.

Czesław Milosz was born June 30 1911 at the estate of his Polish family in Szetejnie (currently Šeteniai),

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Citation: Van Heuckelom, Kris. "Czesław Miłosz". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3128, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3128 Czesław Miłosz 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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