He spent his youth and studied law in Vilnius, where he also published his first poems. During the German Occupation he lived in Warsaw. After the war, he served in the Polish diplomatic service in the USA and France until 1951, when he sought political asylum in France. In 1960, he left France for California, where he spent more than twenty years as Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California Berkeley. Until 1989, most of his publications were in the Paris emigre journal "Kultura" or in the underground press in Poland. He has divided his time between Berkeley and Cracow since 1989.
Critics from many countries, as well as contemporary poets (like Joseph Brodsky, for instance), approach Milosz's literary output in superlatives. His poetry is rich in visual-symbolic metaphor. The idyllic and the apocalyptic go hand-in-hand. The verse sometimes suggests naked philosophical discourse of religious epiphany. Songs and theological treatises alternate, as in the "child-like rhymes" about the German Occupation of Warsaw in THE WORLD: NAIVE POEMS (1943) or SIX LECTURES IN VERSE from the volume CHRONICLES (1987). Milosz transcends genre. As a poet and translator, he moves easily from contemporary American poets to the Bible (portions of which he has rendered anew into Polish).
As a novelist, he won renown with THE SEIZURE OF POWER (1953), about the installation of communism in Poland. Both Milosz and his readers have a particular liking for the semi-autobiographical THE ISSA VALLEY (1955), a tale of growing up and the loss of innocence that abounds in philosophical sub-texts. There are also many personal themes in Milosz's essays, as well as in THE CAPTIVE MIND (1953), a classic of the literature of totalitarianism. NATIVE REALM (1959) remains one of the best studies of the evolution of the Central European mentality. THE LAND OF ULRO (1977) is a sort of intellectual and literary autobiography. It was followed by books like THE WITNESS OF POETRY (1982), THE METAPHYSICAL PAUSE (1995) and LIFE ON ISLANDS (1997) that penetrate to the central issues of life and literature today.
Bibliography:
TRZY ZIMY / THREE WINTERS, Warszawa: Wyd. Wladyslaw Mortkowicz, 1936
OCALENIE / RESCUE, Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1945
ZNIEWOLONY UMYSL / THE CAPTIVE MIND, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1953 (translations:
French, English, Italian, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian,
Macedonian, German, Swedish, Ukrainian, Hungarian)
SWIATLO DZIENNE / THE LIGHT OF DAY, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1954
ZDOBYCIE WLADZY / THE SEIZURE OF POWER, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1955
(translations: French, English, Spanish, Gujarati, Indonesian, Japanese,
Korean, Malay, German, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, Hungarian)
DOLINA ISSY / THE ISSA VALLEY, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1955. (translations:
French, English, German, Bulgarian, Danish, Finnish, Flemish, Norwegian,
Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, Hungarian)
TRAKTAT POETYCKI / A POETICAL TREATISE, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1957.
(translations: Russian)
RODZINNA EUROPA / NATIVE REALM, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1959. (translations:
French, English, Danish, Finnish, Flemish, Spanish, German, Serbo-Croatian,
Swedish, Hungarian, Italian)
KROL POPIEL I INNE WIERSZE / KING POPIEL AND OTHER POEMS, Paris: Instytut
Literacki, 1962
GUCIO ZACZAROWANY / GUCIO ENCHANTED, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1965
THE HISTORY O POLISH LITERATURE, London-New York: MacMillan, 1969 (translations:
Polish, French, German, Italian)
WIDZENIA NA ZATOKA SAN FRANCISCO / A VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY, Paris:
Instytut Literacki, 1969 (translations: French, English, Serbo-Croatian)
MIASTO BEZ IMIENIA / CITY WITHOUT A NAME, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1969.
GDZIE WSCHODZI SLONCE I KEDY ZAPADA / WHERE THE SUN RISES AND WHERE IT
SETS, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1974 (translations: Serbo-Croatian)
PRYWATNE OBOWIAZKI / PRIVATE OBLIGATIONS, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1974.
EMPEROR OF THE EARTH, Berkeley: University of Cal. Press, 1976. (translations:
French)
ZIEMIA ULRO / THE LAND OF ULRO, Paris: Instytut Literacki , 1977 (translations:
French, English, German, Serbo-Croatian)
OGROD NAUK / THE GARDEN OF SCIENCE, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1979 (translations:
French)
NOBEL LECTURE, New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1981
HYMN O PERLE / THE POEM OF THE PEARL, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1982
(translations: Czech, Serbo-Croatian)
THE WITNESS OF POETRY, Cambridge. Mass., Harvard Univ. Press, 1983 (translations:
Polish, French, German, Serbo-Croatian)
NIEOBJETA ZIEMIA / THE UNENCOMPASSED EARTH, Paris: Instytut Literacki,
1984 (translations: English, French, German)
ZACZYNAJAC OD MOICH ULIC / STARTING FROM MY STREETS, Paris: Instytut Literacki,
1985. (translations: English, French)
KRONIKI / CHRONICLES, Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1987 (translations: French,
Serbo-Croatian)
DALSZE OKOLICE / FARTHER SURROUNDINGS, Krakow: Znak, 1991 (translations:
English)
SZUKANIE OJCZYZNY / IN SEARCH OF A HOMELAND, Krakow: Znak, 1992. (translations:
Lithuanian)
NA BRZEGU RZEKI / FACING THE RIVER, Krakow: Znak, 1994 (translations:
English)
METAFIZYCZNA PAUZA / THE METAPHYSICAL PAUSE, Krakow: Znak, 1995
LEGENDY NOWOCZESNOSCI (ESEJE WOJENNE) / MODERN LEGENDS (WAR ESSAYS), Krakow:
Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1996
PIESEK PRZYDROZNY / ROADSIDE DOG, Krakow: Znak, 1997
ZYCIE NA WYSPACH / LIFE ON ISLANDS, Krakow: Znak, 1997
ABECADLO MILOSZA / MILOSZ'S ALPHABET, Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie,
1997
INNE ABECADLO / A FURTHER ALPHABET, Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1998
WYPRAWA W DWUDZIESTOLECIE / AN EXCURSION THROUGH THE TWENTIES AND THIRTIES,
Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1999
TO / IT, Krakow: Znak, 2000