Kazimierz Nowak

Kazimierz Nowak

Kazimierz Nowak (January 11, 1897 – October 13, 1937) was a Polish traveller, correspondent, reporter and photographer.

Born in Stryj, Nowak lived in Poznań following World War I. From 1931 to 1936, he traveled alone, by bicycle, on foot, on horse, by boat and on camel across Africa, covering a distance of 40,000 km from Libya to Cape Agulhas, South Africa and back to Algeria. He died in Poznań from pneumonia as a consequence of emaciation of the body due to travel, malaria, and leg surgery. Photographs from his African travel were published in Poland in 1962 in the album Przez Czarny Ląd (Across the Black Land). The book was edited by Nowak's daughter Elżbieta Nowak-Gliszewska and photographs were selected after consultation with professors Jan Czekanowski and Jerzy Loth.[1] Kazimierz Nowak's accounts of the travel were first published jointly as late as 2000, in a book entitled Rowerem i pieszo przez Czarny Ląd (By Bicycle and On Foot Across the Black Land). Famous writer Ryszard Kapuściński said in 2006:

This book is quite unusual because of the content and the author, deserving much greater attention and wider resonance. This amazing thing turns into a permanent position in my lectures, talks, reflections on foreign reportage. I hope that this book will take a permanent place on the lists of Polish classics of reportage, whose strong supporter I become from this moment.[2]

National Geographic Traveler (Polish edition) wrote that "Kazimierz Nowak is without a doubt a master of travel reportage".[3] On 25 November 2006, in the Hall of Poznań Main Railway Station where Nowak began and ended his travel, Ryszard Kapuściński unveiled a commemorative plaque dedicated to Nowak.[4] 7th extended Polish edition of the book was published in 2013. The book was translated to Hungarian language in 2014 (Kerékpárral és gyalog a fekete földrészen át).[5]

In 2011 Jacek Y. Łuczak wrote Nowak's biography Polska Kazimierza Nowaka. Przewodnik rowerzysty (Kazimierz Nowak's Poland. A Cyclist's Guidebook).[6] The book describes places in Poland Nowak visited during his 4 bicycle travels in the years 1925-1930 (1925-1926: around Europe; 1927-1928: Europe and North Africa; 1928: around Poland; 1930: Southern Poland and Western Europe).

In 2014 first volume of Nowak's letters from African travel to his wife was published in Poland as Kochana Maryś! Listy z Afryki. Second volume was published in 2015 and third in 2016.[7][8] The last volume is expected to be published in 2017.

Kazimierz Nowak crossing a desert in Africa

Notes

  1. ↑ K. Nowak; E. Gliszewska (1962). Przez Czarny Ląd (in Polish). Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna.
  2. ↑ "Kazimierz Nowak". Afryka Nowaka. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  3. ↑ "Recenzja książki "Rowerem i pieszo przez Czarny Ląd"". National Geographic Traveler (in Polish). February–March 2008. Retrieved 17 November 2016. Kazimierz Nowak to bez wątpienia mistrz reportażu podróżniczego.
  4. ↑ Nowak, Kazimierz (2008). "Introduction to third edition (expanded)". Rowerem i pieszo przez czarny ląd. Sorus, Poznań. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-83-89949-35-6.
  5. ↑ Nowak, Kazimierz (2014). Kerékpárral és gyalog a fekete földrészen át (in Hungarian). Publikon. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  6. ↑ Łuczak, Jacek Y. (2011). Polska Kazimierza Nowaka (in Polish). Sorus. p. 368. ISBN 978-83-62653-02-7. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  7. ↑ Nowak, Kazimierz (2014–2016). Kochana Maryś! Listy z Afryki – tom I, II i III (in Polish). Sorus. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  8. ↑ "Listy z Afryki do żony (Letters from Africa to wife)". Kazimierz Nowak (in Polish). Retrieved 14 November 2016.
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