WAT Alexander - My Age. A spoken memoir [first edition London 1977].

London 1977, Polonia Book Fund. 21.5x13.5 cm, pp. 373, 392, black and white photos in the text, publisher's soft covers. Very good condition (minor cover scuffs).

First edition. The foreword was written by Czeslaw Milosz. Prepared for print by Lidia Ciolkoszowa. "My Age" is a transcript of conversations that Czeslaw Milosz and Aleksander Wat conducted in 1965. The interview was recorded on cassette tapes and then prepared for print. It was originally intended to be published by Giedroyc and his Literary Institute. The memoirs covered three periods of Watt's life: Warsaw (his futuristic youth and the life of Warsaw bohemians between the wars), Lviv (1939) and Russia (1940-1946). The writer depicts, among other things, the activities of the communist intelligentsia in the interwar period, the attitude of Soviet authorities toward Polish writers in Lviv, the provocation that resulted in the mass arrest of writers in January 1940 and the deportation of their families to Kazakhstan, their stay in 13 Soviet prisons, their work in the London government delegation in Alma-Ata, and the restrictions after the departure of the Anders Army.