TVP WEEKLY: While reading the biography of Afred Szklarski I came to the conclusion that he had something in common with baron Munchausen – German nobleman, soldier, traveler and adventurer, famous thanks to the novel “The Surprising Adventures of baron Munchausen”…

JAROSŁAW MOLENDA: Well, that’s interesting association, I haven’t thought about Szklarski in comparison to anybody. I tried to fill the gaps in his life story but, first of all, to create the first biography of an author whose works were read avidly at a time when travelling around the world wasn’t dead easy, as it is today…

The hero of your book wasn’t American by birth?

This is one of the famous novelists’ numerous mysteries secrets. Officially, his place of birth is Chicago, but the first document confirming it was issued many years later. However, I found documents in the American archives indicating that he sailed to the US for the first time when he was just under one year old – for he and the rest of his family are listed on a passengers’ list of a ship from Europe. It’s hard for me to establish the truth but there are doubts for sure. The purpose for entering “Chicago” as the place of birth was obvious: American citizenship made one’s life easier in many ways. We’ve got the beginning of the 20th Century, thousands of migrants come to the US, there is chaos, later on WWI comes – in such circumstances there was no difficulty convincing a clerk to the version presented by the family.

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE As a teenager did he witness gangs warfare in the background?

At least that’s what comes out of his memoirs but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had been fantasy. He grew up in a city associated with mafias and the most famous mobster of that era. “The best” time of the then introduced prohibition are the 20s when Szklarski was becoming a teenager. Street shooting, violence, illicit bars – all of that could be seen by a boy coming from the Polish diaspora which could also “boast” on a number of gangster stars.

Why and when did he return to Poland? And why specifically to Włocławek?

That’s where his mother was from. He had already visited Poland with her once to come back upon the Vistula for good in 1928. This decision was made by his mother who was feeling worse and worse in the US. She was ill, probably she didn’t want to die abroad. Szklarski found himself well in the new reality, he went to college in Warsaw, fell in love…

Did he dream of a diplomatic career?

For sure he was interested in such a job, he was an expert on American-Japanese relations but his life led him elsewhere.

What did he live off as a student?

He finished his studies although it wasn’t easy for him to make both ends meet. I think America taught him entrepreneurship and this characteristic way of think: “you can”. He was intelligent, resourceful, venturesome, earned extra money where he could, be it by giving private lessons or otherwise. He made it.

Did he have no intention of going back to the US?

Who knows what would have happened had it not been for his wife. He believed that America wasn’t for Krystyna. But when the war broke out the American Embassy offered evacuation but only to him but not to his wife who didn’t have American citizenship. He didn’t want to leave her in a war-torn country. He impressed me much with this, anyway he was a very loyal, principled man.

The outbreak of WWII held his father, an American citizen, down in Warsaw…

Yes, for over two years. He went to the US thanks to an exchange of prisoners with Germany.

Meanwhile Alfred Szklarski made his debut in literature. In the pages of Nazi-licensed press!

My impression is that he didn’t quite understand his move. He had literary ambitions and those periodicals gave him the chance to become known. He could hardly undertake physical work because he was ill. He wasn’t the only creator of culture who somehow worked for the Germans. For instance – a considerable group of our recognized actors with Adolf Dymsza atop. The same newspapers as Szklarski were worked for by – as a graphic – Wojciech Mann’s father. There were many such people. They simply did their job like a railway driver, tram driver or shopkeeper.

What would he publish there and how often? Did he use a pseudonym?

He was among the most fertile authors but it has to be stated very clearly that he didn’t write propaganda texts, he didn’t praise German victories or politics. He provided adventure, criminal, even half-erotic books which after all gave the Poles a moment of relief from war reality… Is a deadly sin? He would sign some of them with his pseudonyms.

At the same time he was active with the underground and took part in the Warsaw Rising?

That’s it. He delivered information to the people of the ground which wasn’t taken into consideration by the communist court. Armed, he fought in Ochota under the nom de guerre “Szklarz”. His commander pronounced the best possible judgment on him.

He printed an account of the fights in the capital in “Nowy Kurier Warsawski”?!

Well, that’s astonishing! First, this text is uncharacteristic of Szklarski, second it was published already after the fall of the rising and third – it’s really striking that the Germans printed it as, on the whole, he describes the insurgents’ heroic struggle… Maybe the article passed because the Germans are criticized only a little there? I think we will never learn that.

Why did settle down in Katowice after the war? Had he already lived off writing then?

Warsaw was a city of ruins, together with his wife they resolved to seek happiness in Kraków but they didn’t spend much time there as a chance appeared to find a job and an apartment in Katowice. It was actually Kraków that a special group whose goal was to strengthen Polishness in Silesia, start newspapers and to stimulate creators of culture did set off. Many Poles came there at that time. It was there that he could carry on with his literary career which he commenced in the pages of collaborationist rags. It was also there that prototype Tomek Wilmowski was born, although it didn’t score a success.

How did it come to pass that he ended up in a communist prison?

After the war there began trials of people collaborating with the Germans, also of those writing ones. Szklarski learnt about it and decided to come forward. It seems that he didn’t know the real threat. Perhaps in his own conviction he believed he hadn’t done anything wrong. He struck the wrong moment, there was a biased, even show trial, he had no chance of a just sentence. He was sentenced to eight years – exactly like Blanka Kaczorowska, a true traitor. The incarceration changed him though it didn’t disturb his future career. This time he was lucky finding himself in a group of people who looked upon such cases in a more reasonable manner. They recognized he suffered enough for the sins of youth.

So the Tomek Wilmowski series constituted a window on the world for the readers under communism?

Oh, it wasn’t a window but a shop a window (he laughs). In those day his books were a mixture of Wojciech Cejrowski, Martyna Wojciechowska and Beata Pawlikowska [famous Polish travelers – trans.] in one but 100 times better. Thank to him Poles get acquainted with the most exotic corners of the globe – which could be reached by only few.

Did the writer create the scenery for each volume only from imagination?

On the contrary, he would painfully check everything and confront it with the sources. If only he had contradictory data he tried to verify them, and if there was still doubt, he didn’t publish such information. Some recalled later that Szklarski’s books so perfectly described places he hadn’t visited that when, after many years, they travelled with them in hand everything added up.

”The people’s authority” strived to somehow exploit Szklarski’s popularity for propaganda purposes?

Of course, nevertheless he would defend himself against that as much as he could. From time to time he had to write something in accordance with “the only, righteous political line”, but when subsequent “adventures of Tomek” began to score commercial success, it became clear it was better to use the writer in a different field than coarse, stupefying propaganda.

Did he engage in the socio-political life?

I talked to people who remember him. They emphasized that he was not social, he found his world in books. After work – and he spent many hours in libraries or archives – he would return straight home, he did not attend the high society He didn’t want to have anything in common with this authority. He admired Józef Piłsudski, whose portrait was hanging in his office in the place of honor. On the other hand, he did not avoid contact with ordinary people, he liked talking to them, he often received children, used as the first reviewers of his texts or ideas.

How to explain the Indian thread in the works of this prose writer?

He was fascinated by Indians from childhood, he admired their courage and honor. Perhaps they reminded him a bit of Poles during the struggle for independence. I think that in his personal ranking, the Indian trilogy stood higher than the adventures of Tmes. And the fact is that he did a great job, one must appreciate the Benedictine work of the author, but also of his wife who helped him in reconstructing the lives of the native people of America. It was a fantastic position at the time.

The Tomek series didn’t pass away with its originator?

For me it did, because sequels written by other others are not the same. Times have changed, today the Internet is destroying everything. People read few books, let alone quite anachronistic novels. In the age of Wikipedia footnotes are such a bore! The Szklarski’s hero, compared to the icons of contemporary culture, Harry Potter for instance, would have difficulty attracting mass culture. Many years had elapsed before it was decided to revive Tomek but I fear that it would be more of vegetation rather than of a bestseller.

– interviewed by Tomasz Zbigniew Zapert
-translated by Domik Szczęsny-Kostanecki

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

Jarosław Molenda – writer, journalist and traveler. MA graduate in classics, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He deals with widely understood popular science journalism, his texts have been published in such magazines as “Focus Historia”, “Mówią Wieki”, “Rzeczpospolita”, “Voyage”. In 2015, for promoting culture and history, he was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit by the President of the Republic of Poland. In 2016, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage awarded him the “Meritorious for Polish Culture” Badge. Author of several dozen books on history, geography, tourism and gastronomy, including the most recent “Alfred Szklarski – a dream merchant”.