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More about Czesław Miłosz: A California Life at Heyday Books and The Book Haven

How the book originated (0:45) — The vatic tradition in Polish poetry (4:30) — Warsaw 1945 and “Dedication” (6:45) — Introducing Polish literature to California students (11:00) — Immersion in American literature and culture after 1945 (15:00) — Under surveillance by the U.S. government; defecting to the U.S.; Stalinism as “swallowing frogs” (17:30) — Being and becoming; poetry and philosophy; from Thomas Aquinas to James Fenimore Cooper (20:30) — The superhuman California landscape (24:30) — Transition from Poland to Berkeley and “A Magic Mountain” (25:30) — The loss of “second space” and spiritual imagination (30:30) — A playful thinker, and “To Mrs. Professor in Defense of My Cat’s Honor and Not Only” (34:00)

Poems by Czesław Miłosz:
“Dedication”     |      “A Magic Mountain”    |      “To Mrs. Professor in Defense of My Cat’s Honor and Not Only”