Zdzisław Najder
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Zdzisław Najder (born in Warsaw, Poland, October 31, 1930) is a Polish historian of literature, a former opponent of the government of the Polish People's Republic, and former director of the Polish section of Radio Free Europe.
Najder is a world authority on the works of Joseph Conrad. His Joseph Conrad: a Chronicle is a major work on the subject.
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[edit] Life
A graduate of Tadeusz Reytan High School (VI Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Tadeusza Reytana) in Warsaw, Najder studied Polish literature and philosophy at Warsaw University from 1949 to 1954. In 1959 he went to Oxford University, where he remained for ten years, receiving bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in philosophy and Polish literature.
On completing his studies at Oxford, Najder returned to Poland, where he joined the staff of the Institute for Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and co-edited the Warsaw literary monthly, Twórczość (Creativity).
When martial law was declared in Poland (December 13, 1981) Najder, internationally renowned for his work on Joseph Conrad, was a visiting scholar at Oxford University. A supporter of Solidarity, he remained abroad and, on the recommendation of Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, was appointed director of the Polish-language service of Radio Free Europe (RFE), a post he held until 1987. During his tenure, in Poland he was sentenced to death in absentia for alleged collaboration with U.S. intelligence.
Najder was the first RFE language-service director hired right out of the Eastern bloc — which became a source of tension within the RFE Polish service.
Under Najder's leadership, the RFE Polish service sharpened its criticism of the Polish government, sometimes blurring the distinction between news and opinion. One of his innovations was a program on "The Poland that Could Be," speculating about a future Poland free from communist rule.
After the fall of Poland's communist government in 1989, Najder returned to Poland and became an adviser to President Lech Wałęsa and Prime Minister Jan Olszewski.
Najder is a member of the Association of Polish Writers (Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich). He became a professor emeritus in 2003. He serves as an adviser to Poland's minister for European integration. In 2005 he was decorated with France's Légion d'Honneur.
The Hoover Institution at Stanford University, in California, holds an extensive Zdzisław Najder Collection, open to the public, of documentation on Najder's work at Radio Free Europe, on the Solidarity movement, and on conditions in Poland.
[edit] Works
- Conrad under Familial Eyes, Cambridge University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-521-25082-X.
- Joseph Conrad: a Chronicle, new edition, Camden House, 2007.
