KALICKI Rajmund

Born on 21 May 1944 in the small town of Głębokie in the Wilno (Vilnius) region. It is now Hlybokaye in Belarus; son of the doctor Józef Kalicki and the x-ray technician Michalina Furs. In 1958/59, he travelled with his father to visit family in Argentina. He made his debut in 1959 with a letter in the youth magazine "Płomyk" (no. 15), which was a travelogue of his trip to South America. Upon his return to Poland he attended the Grammar School in Sokółka, completing his advanced secondary education in 1963. He then studied archaeology at the Chair of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, (UW) graduating with a master's degree in 1968. His dissertation was supervised by Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski. He went to Argentina again in 1969 and completed secondary education there at the Colegio Nacional de San Miguel in Buenos Aires. He then studied documentary film-making at Instituto de Cinematografia de la Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Santa Fe. After returning to Poland, he worked from 1972 to 1975 at the Spanish-language section of the Foreign News Department of the Polish Press Agency (PAP). He made his debut as a translator from Spanish in 1972 with a translation of a short story by the Peruvian writer Ventura García-Calderón, published in Polish as Szpila (Pin) in the weekly magazine "Przekrój" (no. 1361). He published further translations of Spanish-language literature from Latin America in subsequent years. In 1974, he took up a post at the literary monthly "Twórczość", where he published numerous essays, translations, notes and memoir-based pieces (using pen names and cryptonyms including: R.K., yo). He was also made editor of the short essay section. He also published translations, notes and articles in periodicals including "Kontakty" (1973, 1979), "Literatura na Świecie" (1973, 1975, 1977-78, 1985, 1993,1995), "Literatura" (1975, 1985), "Kultura" (1976-81), "Przekrój" (1976-77, 1987), "Perspektywy" (1977), "Kontynenty" (1978, 1984), "Polityka" (1978-80, 1986), "Tygodnik Literacki" (1990-91), "Dziennik Zachodni" (1992-94; including the cycle of short essays Dziennik osobny (A Separate Diary), using the cryptonym: mizantrop). Between 1984 and 1992, he was also an editor at the publishing house Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza Czytelnik. During this period he was also involved in publishing and translating texts connected to Witold Gombrowicz's time in Argentina. He became a member of the Association of Polish Writers (SPP) in 1990 and joined the Polish PEN Club in 2001. He received the 1994 "Literatura na Świecie" award for his translation of José Ortega y Gasset's essay collection Velázquez i Goya (which was published in English translation as: Velazquez, Goya and the Dehumanization of Art). The same year he also received an award from the Association of Polish Translators (Stowarzyszenie Tłumaczy Polskich, STP). He received the Gold Cross of Merit in 2005. He married the Warsaw School of Economics (then known as SGPiS) graduate Barbara Maria Kiszniewska in 1968. They have two sons, Olaf and Konrad. He lives in Otwock.