Jerzy Putrament

Born Nov. 14, 1910, in Minsk. Polish writer. Member of the Polish Workers’ Party from 1944, of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) since 1948, and of the Central Committee of the PUWP since 1964.

Putrament received a degree in philology from the University of Vilnius in 1934. During World War II he helped organize the Union of Polish Patriots in the USSR and the First Polish Army. After the formation of the Polish People’s Republic, he served as ambassador to Switzerland from 1945 to 1947 and to France from 1947 to 1950.

Putrament’s works first appeared in print in 1932. Among his best novels are Reality (1947; Russian translation, 1948), September (1951; Russian translation, 1961), At the Crossroads (1954), Noah’s Ark (1961), The Stepsons (1963), They of Little Faith (1967), The Wild Boar (1964), Virgin Forest (1966; Russian translation, 1970), and Boldyn (1969). Putrament is also famous as a short-story writer (collection, The Sacred Bullet, 1946), journalist, and essayist. His reminiscences, entitled Half a Century, appeared in four volumes between 1961 and 1970. Putrament deals with important social issues, and his novels and short stories are marked by dramatic conflict, dynamic action, and a penchant for polemic incisiveness. He received the State Prize of the Polish People’s Republic in 1953, 1955, and 1964, and in 1974 he was awarded the Order of Builder of People’s Poland.