10 February 1935, Sunday

(A) Warsaw. In the election process organized by Wiadomości Literackie for members of the Academy of Independents Bruno Schulz wins a hundred votes and is not admitted among the ranks of “academics”.

(A) In September 1933, the Polish Academy of Literature (PAL) was established with a Regulation of the Council of Ministers. Wacław Sieroszewski became the head of this national patronage organisation focused on popularising literature; Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski, chief advocate for the establishment of the Academy, became its secretary. Among the members there were mainly older-generation writers1. In response to the establishment of the government academy in 1934, Wiadomości Literackie organised a contest: “Who would we choose to an Academy of Independents if such an Academy was to be established?”2. The results were announced in January 1935; readers decided to include the following writers in the Academy: Julian Tuwim*, Antoni Słonimski*, Andrzej Strug, Maria Dąbrowska, Paweł Hulka-Laskowski, Kazimierz Wierzyński*, Ferdinand Goetel, Michał Choromański, Aleksander Brückner, Jan Parandowski, Aleksander Świętochowski, Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna, Adolf Nowaczyński and Szymon Askenazy. Bruno Schulz received a hundred votes; in comparison, Askenazy, the least popular among those included in the Academy – 2,528, the winner Tuwim – 11,245 votes. Since 1935, the Academy of Independents began to award a prize for the book of the year. (mr) (transl. mw)

See also: November 1938*, 8 February 1939*. 

  • 1
    Apart from Kaden and Sieroszewski, the PAL included: Leopold Staff, Wacław Berent, Piotr Choynowski, Karol Irzykowski, Juliusz Kleiner, Bolesław Leśmian, Zofia Nałkowska, Zenon Przesmycki, Karol Hubert Rostworowski, Wincenty Rzymowski, Jerzy Szaniawski, Tadeusz Zieliński, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński. Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna and Andrzej Strug refused to accept the laurel of “academics”. Later, Ferdynand Goetel, Jan Lorentowicz, Kornel Makuszyński and Kazimierz Wierzyński joined the Academy.
  • 2
    “Kogo wybralibyśmy do Akademii Niezależnych, gdyby taka Akademia powstała”, Wiadomości Literackie 1935, no. 6, p. 1, http://mbc.malopolska.pl/dlibra/editions-content?id=57334 (access: 6 June 2017); reprinted [in:] Wiadomości Literackie (1924–1939). Wybór, wybór, wstęp i opracowanie Agata Zawiszewska, Warszawa 2015, p. 183–185.