Marek Hlasko
Encyclopedia
Marek Hłasko – a writer and a famous figure in post-war Polish literature.
, as the only son of Maciej Hłasko and Maria Łucja, née Rosiak. At first he lived with his parents in Złotokłos; later they moved to Warsaw. In the Hłasko family, children were baptised relatively late, hence the writer-to-be was baptized on 26 December 1935 in the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Warsaw. It is said that during the baptism ceremony
when asked if he renounces the evil spirits Marek answered "No". Later, these words were reported as the evidence of Marek’s strong character.
Hłasko was three years old when his parents divorced in 1937. Maciej remarried a year later. He died on 13 September 1939, when his only son was five. The war
left its stamp on Marek’s psyche: later he wrote "it is obvious to me that I am a product of war times, starvation and terror; it is the reason for the intellectual poverty of my short stories. Simply, I cannot think up a story that does not end in death, catastrophe, suicide or imprisonment. Some people accuse me of pretending to be a strong man. They are wrong."
At the outbreak of World War II
, Hłasko’s mother was working in the management secretariat of the City Power Station in Warsaw. During the occupation she was fired and ran a food stall till the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising
. As a result, the family's financial situation worsened. At this time Marek started his education; however, all documents that might provide information about his education were destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising. Among the schools that he attended was one near the St. Kazimierz Factory on Tamka Street
. During the Warsaw Uprising, Marek stayed with his mother in Warsaw, and when it ended they moved to Częstochowa
to the house of a friend. In March 1945, Maria and her son moved to Chorzów
and two months later to Białystok, where she settled with Kaziemierz Gryczkiewicz. In early 1946, Gryczkiewicz, Maria Hłasko and Marek moved to Wrocław.
In the summer of 1946, Marek Hłasko joined the Bolesław Chrobry First Wrocław Scout Troops. In order to become a member of the troop, Marek with his family’s consent, gave 1933 as the year of his birth. Later he was dismissed from the scouts because of the poor attendance at the meetings. Marek worked as a messenger at the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace
, held in August 1948 in Wrocław.
The problems connected with Marek’s education also cropped up. In his biography of Hłasko, Andrzej Czyżewski writes: "(Marek) began his education at the age of six and a half. During his school years he was always one of the youngest pupils in the class. To make matters worse, he had a childish appearance. Hence, he could not show off with what a boy in the primary school wants to impress others: strength, dexterity and maturity. He made up for it with the aggression and pertness, even towards his teachers. As a consequence, he had very few school mates. He was always an outsider. He walked away before he managed to make friends and get accustomed to them.". In June 1948 he graduated from the Maria Konopnicka Elementary School in Wrocław.
From September to November 1948, he studied at the Chamber of Commerce’ of the Secondary School of Business and Administration in Wrocław, and from March until June 1949 in the Labour Association of Children Friends’ School in Legnica (at that time he lived in a dormitory
). Later, from December 1949 to January 1950, he attended the Technical and Drama High School in Warsaw, yet, in the end of December 1949 and early January 1950, he was expelled for "a notorious disrespect to school regulations, criminal violations, and wielding a corrupting influence on his colleagues".
At the age of 16, he obtained his driving licence and started working as a van driver. On 28 September 1950 he was sentenced by the Magistrates' Court to two months of work with a 10% deduction from his salary (as he violated Article 7, point 2 of the Act on Securing Socialist Discipline of Work). After working off his sentence, he changed his employer.
From 15 November 1950 to 1 January 1951, he worked in the Transport Depot in Bystrzyca Kłodzka. Experiences gained there later inspired him to write a novel Następny do raju (Next stop-Paradise). In January 1951 he moved to Warsaw with his mother and father-in-law. Hłasko often changed his occupation but it was always his own choice. Successively, he worked from 26 February to 15 April 1951 in an Equipment Base of the City’s Construction Union, from 27 April 1951 to 16 June 1952 in a subway construction company "Metrobudowa", from 4 August to 1 December 1952 in a Transport Association of Warsaw Associations of Consumers, and till 30 March 1953 in a Warsaw Transport Enterprise of the City Retail Sale.
Writing became a chance to get out of this mind-numbing activity. His literary career started in 1951 when he wrote Baza Sokołowska, his first set of short stories. Hłasko became a correspondent for Trybuna Ludowa (a popular Polish daily) when he was working for "Metrobudowa". At the end of 1952 he decided to show extracts of his book to Bohdan Czeszko. His reply letter written on 3 December of the same year included a criticism of Hłasko’s literary attempts, but also drew attention to the young author’s talent. Moreover, also in 1952, Hłasko followed Stefan Łoś’s advice and established contact with the Polish Literary Association and Igor Newerly
, who was the protector of young writers. Hłasko introduced himself, to both Czeszko and Newerly, as "an uneducated driver who tries to describe his life in his free time after work".
In April 1953, he received a three-month artistic scholarship from the Polish Literary Association. He, definitively, gave up his driver’s job and went to Wrocław to work on his debut. Moreover, following Bohdan Czaszka’s advice, he wrote a story based on his sketches (a final version of Baza Sokołowska) and finished a novel Sonata marymoncka.
He made his debut with Baza Sokołowska in Sztandar Młodych (a daily paper published in Poland in 1950-1997) in 1954. He became quickly known as the most talented writer of the young generation. However, the entering to the literary circle resulted in his alcoholism
, which was becoming more and more pronounced. In 1955-1957 he edited a prose section in Po Prostu (a Polish socio-political magazine published in 1947-57), but he was not a good publicist. In 1956 he finally got his own flat in Warsaw.
He gained publicity and popularity thanks to his original working style as well as his unconventional behaviour and clothing. He was a legendary figure of the young generation, a symbol of non-conformism. He was well-built; however, the physical appearance concealed over-sensitivity and uncertainty. He was prone to depression
and could not adapt to everyday reality. Marek’s inclination to rows contrasted with his friends’ positive opinions of him.
In 1958, he went to Paris. The press there called him an Eastern Europe
an James Dean
, as Hłasko strikingly resembled him. Marek really identified himself with this role: he vandalized pubs and restaurants. At this time, he gained worldwide publicity. Nonetheless, he liked the life of a vagrant, so he left Paris
and went to Germany
and then to Italy
.
The anticommunist edition of Cmentarze in Parisian paper Kultura
launched a press campaign against him. When Marek was refused a renewal of his passport, he asked for political asylum in the Western Germany
. After three months, he changed his mind and tried to return to Poland
. However, while waiting for an answer from the Polish government, he decided to go to Israel
in 1959. He could not live without Poland but at the same time he could not return to his homeland. As he did not have a talent for languages, he found it difficult to adjust to the reality of life abroad. He led a life of a vagrant, but he did not have to work while his publications provided him with a steady income. He performed manual labour, but he did so out of curiosity rather than need. Since 1960, he had lived in Germany with his beautiful wife, a German actress, Sonja Ziemann.
In 1963, he spent a month in prison for his feuds with the police. In 1964 he twice attempted to commit suicide. Between 1963 and 1965, he spent a total of 242 days in psychiatric clinics. In 1965, he divorced his wife and in 1966, with some help of Roman Polanski
, he went to Los Angeles
. He was supposed to write screenplays but it did not work out. He had an affair with Betty, a wife of Nicholas Ray
, the author of Rebel Without a Cause
, and thereby ended his career as a screenwriter. He got a pilot’s licence instead.
In 1969, during one of his parties, he fell out with Krzysztof Komeda
. As a result of this accident, Komeda got a brain hematoma
and died few days later. Hłasko was to say: "If Krzysztof dies, I'll go along" (Jeśli Krzysio umrze, to i ja pójdę). In 1969, he came back to Germany.
He died in Wiesbaden
at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death remain unknown. One hypothesis is that he mixed alcohol with sedative drugs. However, those who knew him maintain that suicide was out of the question in his case.
In 1975, his ashes were brought to Poland and buried at Powązki Cemetery
in Warsaw. Jan Himilsbach, a stonecutter who worked at the cemetery, was an initiator of bringing Hłasko’s body back to Poland. Himilsbach carved inscriptions on Hłasko’s grave. The notice was suggested by Hłasko’s mother and it says: "His life was short, and everybody turned their backs on him".
Humphrey Bogart
and Fyodor Dostoevsky
were his idols.
His prose works voiced his objections to conformity and the hypocrisy of socialist realist literature. He wrote about protest of a moral nature. In his works he depicted the lives of the lower classes as dominated by hopelessness and cynicism. His characters dream about changes which come out to be vain.
Publishing of his works had been forbidden in Poland for 20 years. He was a co-screenwriter of films such as Koniec nocy (1957), Pętla (1957), Spotkania (1957), Ósmy dzień tygodnia (1958) and Baza ludzi umarłych. Presently he is not a prominent figure in polish literature.
Life
Hłasko’s biography is highly mythologized, and many of the legends about his life he spread himself. Marek was born in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, as the only son of Maciej Hłasko and Maria Łucja, née Rosiak. At first he lived with his parents in Złotokłos; later they moved to Warsaw. In the Hłasko family, children were baptised relatively late, hence the writer-to-be was baptized on 26 December 1935 in the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Warsaw. It is said that during the baptism ceremony
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
when asked if he renounces the evil spirits Marek answered "No". Later, these words were reported as the evidence of Marek’s strong character.
Hłasko was three years old when his parents divorced in 1937. Maciej remarried a year later. He died on 13 September 1939, when his only son was five. The war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
left its stamp on Marek’s psyche: later he wrote "it is obvious to me that I am a product of war times, starvation and terror; it is the reason for the intellectual poverty of my short stories. Simply, I cannot think up a story that does not end in death, catastrophe, suicide or imprisonment. Some people accuse me of pretending to be a strong man. They are wrong."
At the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Hłasko’s mother was working in the management secretariat of the City Power Station in Warsaw. During the occupation she was fired and ran a food stall till the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
. As a result, the family's financial situation worsened. At this time Marek started his education; however, all documents that might provide information about his education were destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising. Among the schools that he attended was one near the St. Kazimierz Factory on Tamka Street
Tamka
Tamka, or ulica Tamka, is a street in the Powiśle district of Warsaw, Poland. The street runs downhill from central Warsaw toward the Vistula River and connects ulica Świętokrzyska with the Wisłostrada....
. During the Warsaw Uprising, Marek stayed with his mother in Warsaw, and when it ended they moved to Częstochowa
Czestochowa
Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 240,027 inhabitants . It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of Częstochowa Voivodeship...
to the house of a friend. In March 1945, Maria and her son moved to Chorzów
Chorzów
Chorzów is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central districts of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropolis with a population of 2 million...
and two months later to Białystok, where she settled with Kaziemierz Gryczkiewicz. In early 1946, Gryczkiewicz, Maria Hłasko and Marek moved to Wrocław.
In the summer of 1946, Marek Hłasko joined the Bolesław Chrobry First Wrocław Scout Troops. In order to become a member of the troop, Marek with his family’s consent, gave 1933 as the year of his birth. Later he was dismissed from the scouts because of the poor attendance at the meetings. Marek worked as a messenger at the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace
World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace
The World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace convened in Wrocław, Poland on August 25-28, 1948, in the aftermath of the Second World War. Notable politicians, academics, and artists attended, including Pablo Picasso, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie, Bertolt Brecht, Paul Éluard, Aldous...
, held in August 1948 in Wrocław.
The problems connected with Marek’s education also cropped up. In his biography of Hłasko, Andrzej Czyżewski writes: "(Marek) began his education at the age of six and a half. During his school years he was always one of the youngest pupils in the class. To make matters worse, he had a childish appearance. Hence, he could not show off with what a boy in the primary school wants to impress others: strength, dexterity and maturity. He made up for it with the aggression and pertness, even towards his teachers. As a consequence, he had very few school mates. He was always an outsider. He walked away before he managed to make friends and get accustomed to them.". In June 1948 he graduated from the Maria Konopnicka Elementary School in Wrocław.
From September to November 1948, he studied at the Chamber of Commerce’ of the Secondary School of Business and Administration in Wrocław, and from March until June 1949 in the Labour Association of Children Friends’ School in Legnica (at that time he lived in a dormitory
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
). Later, from December 1949 to January 1950, he attended the Technical and Drama High School in Warsaw, yet, in the end of December 1949 and early January 1950, he was expelled for "a notorious disrespect to school regulations, criminal violations, and wielding a corrupting influence on his colleagues".
At the age of 16, he obtained his driving licence and started working as a van driver. On 28 September 1950 he was sentenced by the Magistrates' Court to two months of work with a 10% deduction from his salary (as he violated Article 7, point 2 of the Act on Securing Socialist Discipline of Work). After working off his sentence, he changed his employer.
From 15 November 1950 to 1 January 1951, he worked in the Transport Depot in Bystrzyca Kłodzka. Experiences gained there later inspired him to write a novel Następny do raju (Next stop-Paradise). In January 1951 he moved to Warsaw with his mother and father-in-law. Hłasko often changed his occupation but it was always his own choice. Successively, he worked from 26 February to 15 April 1951 in an Equipment Base of the City’s Construction Union, from 27 April 1951 to 16 June 1952 in a subway construction company "Metrobudowa", from 4 August to 1 December 1952 in a Transport Association of Warsaw Associations of Consumers, and till 30 March 1953 in a Warsaw Transport Enterprise of the City Retail Sale.
Writing became a chance to get out of this mind-numbing activity. His literary career started in 1951 when he wrote Baza Sokołowska, his first set of short stories. Hłasko became a correspondent for Trybuna Ludowa (a popular Polish daily) when he was working for "Metrobudowa". At the end of 1952 he decided to show extracts of his book to Bohdan Czeszko. His reply letter written on 3 December of the same year included a criticism of Hłasko’s literary attempts, but also drew attention to the young author’s talent. Moreover, also in 1952, Hłasko followed Stefan Łoś’s advice and established contact with the Polish Literary Association and Igor Newerly
Igor Newerly
Igor Newerly or Igor Abramow-Newerly was a Polish novelist and educator. He was born into a Russian-Polish family. His son is Polish novelist Jarosław Abramow-Newerly...
, who was the protector of young writers. Hłasko introduced himself, to both Czeszko and Newerly, as "an uneducated driver who tries to describe his life in his free time after work".
In April 1953, he received a three-month artistic scholarship from the Polish Literary Association. He, definitively, gave up his driver’s job and went to Wrocław to work on his debut. Moreover, following Bohdan Czaszka’s advice, he wrote a story based on his sketches (a final version of Baza Sokołowska) and finished a novel Sonata marymoncka.
He made his debut with Baza Sokołowska in Sztandar Młodych (a daily paper published in Poland in 1950-1997) in 1954. He became quickly known as the most talented writer of the young generation. However, the entering to the literary circle resulted in his alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, which was becoming more and more pronounced. In 1955-1957 he edited a prose section in Po Prostu (a Polish socio-political magazine published in 1947-57), but he was not a good publicist. In 1956 he finally got his own flat in Warsaw.
He gained publicity and popularity thanks to his original working style as well as his unconventional behaviour and clothing. He was a legendary figure of the young generation, a symbol of non-conformism. He was well-built; however, the physical appearance concealed over-sensitivity and uncertainty. He was prone to depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
and could not adapt to everyday reality. Marek’s inclination to rows contrasted with his friends’ positive opinions of him.
In 1958, he went to Paris. The press there called him an Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
, as Hłasko strikingly resembled him. Marek really identified himself with this role: he vandalized pubs and restaurants. At this time, he gained worldwide publicity. Nonetheless, he liked the life of a vagrant, so he left Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and went to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and then to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
The anticommunist edition of Cmentarze in Parisian paper Kultura
Kultura
Kultura , sometimes referred to as "Kultura Paryska", was a leading Polish-émigré literary-political journal, published from 1947 to 2000 by Instytut Literacki , initially in Rome, then Paris....
launched a press campaign against him. When Marek was refused a renewal of his passport, he asked for political asylum in the Western Germany
Western Germany
The geographic term Western Germany is used to describe a region in the west of Germany. The exact area defined by the term is not constant, but it usually includes, but does not have the borders of, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse...
. After three months, he changed his mind and tried to return to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. However, while waiting for an answer from the Polish government, he decided to go to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1959. He could not live without Poland but at the same time he could not return to his homeland. As he did not have a talent for languages, he found it difficult to adjust to the reality of life abroad. He led a life of a vagrant, but he did not have to work while his publications provided him with a steady income. He performed manual labour, but he did so out of curiosity rather than need. Since 1960, he had lived in Germany with his beautiful wife, a German actress, Sonja Ziemann.
In 1963, he spent a month in prison for his feuds with the police. In 1964 he twice attempted to commit suicide. Between 1963 and 1965, he spent a total of 242 days in psychiatric clinics. In 1965, he divorced his wife and in 1966, with some help of Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
, he went to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. He was supposed to write screenplays but it did not work out. He had an affair with Betty, a wife of Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
, the author of Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
, and thereby ended his career as a screenwriter. He got a pilot’s licence instead.
In 1969, during one of his parties, he fell out with Krzysztof Komeda
Krzysztof Komeda
Krzysztof Komeda was a Polish film music composer and jazz pianist. Perhaps best-known for his work in film scores, Komeda wrote the scores for Roman Polanski’s films Rosemary’s Baby, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Knife in the Water and Cul-de-sac...
. As a result of this accident, Komeda got a brain hematoma
Hematoma
A hematoma, or haematoma, is a localized collection of blood outside the blood vessels, usually in liquid form within the tissue. This distinguishes it from an ecchymosis, which is the spread of blood under the skin in a thin layer, commonly called a bruise...
and died few days later. Hłasko was to say: "If Krzysztof dies, I'll go along" (Jeśli Krzysio umrze, to i ja pójdę). In 1969, he came back to Germany.
He died in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death remain unknown. One hypothesis is that he mixed alcohol with sedative drugs. However, those who knew him maintain that suicide was out of the question in his case.
In 1975, his ashes were brought to Poland and buried at Powązki Cemetery
Powazki Cemetery
Powązki Cemetery , also known as the Stare Powązki is a historic cemetery located in the Wola district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city, and one of the oldest...
in Warsaw. Jan Himilsbach, a stonecutter who worked at the cemetery, was an initiator of bringing Hłasko’s body back to Poland. Himilsbach carved inscriptions on Hłasko’s grave. The notice was suggested by Hłasko’s mother and it says: "His life was short, and everybody turned their backs on him".
Artistic work
Marek's private life resembled the life of characters of his works - romantic, tough outsiders, who became symbols of disappointment with realities of the 1950s.Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
and Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
were his idols.
His prose works voiced his objections to conformity and the hypocrisy of socialist realist literature. He wrote about protest of a moral nature. In his works he depicted the lives of the lower classes as dominated by hopelessness and cynicism. His characters dream about changes which come out to be vain.
Publishing of his works had been forbidden in Poland for 20 years. He was a co-screenwriter of films such as Koniec nocy (1957), Pętla (1957), Spotkania (1957), Ósmy dzień tygodnia (1958) and Baza ludzi umarłych. Presently he is not a prominent figure in polish literature.
Novels
- Ósmy dzień tygodnia (1957)
- Następny do raju (1958)
- Cmentarze (1958)
- Wszyscy byli odwróceni (1964)
- Brudne czyny (1964)
- Drugie zabicie psa (1965)
- Nawrócony w Jaffie (1966)
- Sowa córka piekarza (1967)
- Sonata marymoncka (published posthumously 1982)
- Palcie ryż każdego dnia (published posthumously 1985)
Short stories
- Wilk (fragment powieści) (1954)
- Szkoła (fragment powieści) (1954)
- Złota jesień (fragment powieści) (1954)
- Noc nad piękną rzeką (fragment powieści) (1954)
- Głod (fragment powieści) (1956)
- Pierwszy krok w chmurach (1956) – a collection of short stories
- Dom mojej matki
- Robotnicy
- Okno
- List
- Finis perfectus
- Dwaj mężczyźni na drodze
- Baza Sokołowska
- Żołnierz
- Kancik, czyli wszystko się zmieniło
- Pijany o dwunastej w południe
- Odlatujemy w niebo
- Pierwszy krok w chmurach, Śliczna dziewczyna
- Najświętsze słowa naszego życia
- Lombard złudzeń
- Pętla (shor story)
- Stacja (1962)
- Opowiadania (1963)
- Amor nie przyszedł dziś wieczorem
- Namiętności
- Port pragnień
- Zbieg
- Krzyż
- Miesiąc Matki Boskiej
- Szukając gwiazd
- Powiedz im, kim byłem
- W dzień śmierci Jego
- Umarli są wśród nas (published posthumously, 1986)
- Pamiętasz, Wanda? (published posthumously, 1986)
- Trudna wiosna (published posthumously, 1986)
- Brat czeka na końcu drogi (published posthumously, 1986)
Film adaptations of writings
- Koniec nocy (1956, Director: Julian Dziedzina, Paweł Komorowski, Walentyna Uszycka)
- Ósmy dzień tygodnia (1957, Director: Aleksander FordAleksander FordAleksander Ford born Mosze Lifszyc was a Polish film director; and head of the Polish People's Army Film Crew in the Soviet Union. Ford became director of the nationalized "Film Polski" company at the end of World War II...
) - Pętla (1958, Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has)
- Baza ludzi umarłych (1958, Director: C. Petelski)
- Sonata marymoncka (1987, Director: Jerzy Ridan)
- Isprani (1995, Director: Zrinko OgrestaZrinko OgrestaZrinko Ogresta is an acclaimed Croatian screenwriter and film director.-Filmography:* Fragments: Chronicle of a Vanishing - writer and director...
)