Tuwin image from
Have just read an interesting article in the Times Literary Supplement (April 6, p. 15) about Julian Tuwim [see], an author about whom I knew nothing. The article -- favorably inclined -- but not worshipful -- toward Tuwin ("he might have been on the wrong side of history twice, first as an artist, then as a man") -- notes that: "Having exchanged his Jewish soul for a Polish one, Tuwin returned to Poland in 1946 believing that socialism would destroy the capitalist system he saw as the root cause of war and anti-Semitism, even writing a poem in praise of Stalin ... in doing so, he managed to alienate all his poet-friends ... the children's verse which, of all of Tuwim's work, have so far survived the test of time [:] "Sluggish-at-first-like a snail-slowly creeping/shuddered-and shuffled the engine-still sleepy" runs the "Lokomotywa" of the poem known to every Polish schoochild.
Polophiles of the world: Your thoughts about this (doubtless, controversial?) author.
P.S. Personal note: I served as a US dip in Krakow, Poland, 86-90, a most memorable experience.
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