ADAMCZYK Zdzisław Jerzy

Born on 5 January 1936 in the village of Berezów (now incorporated into the town of Suchedniów, Świętokrzyskie voivodeship); son of the worker Marian Adamczyk and Alfreda, née Pajek. He attended the A. Witkowski Grammar School in Skarżysko-Kamienna, where he completed advanced secondary education in 1953. The same year he started a degree in Polish studies at Warsaw University (UW). She published her debut article Powszednie dni (Weekdays), a discussion of P. Gojawiczyńska's prose, in "Sztandar Młodych" in 1956 (no. 216). He published other texts on literature and film, including reviews, in newspapers and periodicals such as "Żołnierz Wolności" (1956) and "Głos Pracy" (1958; likewise using the alias (ZJA)). In 1957 he graduated with a master's degree in Polish philology. He was employed as an editor at the publishing house of the Ministry of Defence, remaining in Warsaw until October 1959 before moving to Radom. He was director of the reading room at the city's public library to 1961 before spending the next ten years employed at the teaching training college (Studium Nauczycielskie) in Radom, initially as a librarian before going on to be a lecturer and then head of the Polish Philology Section. In 1962 he joined the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR – Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza), remaining a member until its dissolution in January 1990. He was chairman of Radom's Klub Literacki, a literary club supported by the Warsaw branch of the Union of Polish Writers (ZLP – Związek Literatów Polskich). He made his debut as a literary editor in 1961, preparing a letter by Stefan Żeromski for print in "Literatura Ludowa" (no. 3). It was published under the title Żeromski, Orkan i Kajetan Sawczuk [Żeromski, Orkan and Kajetan Sawczuk]. He later published original source materials (primarily excerpts from Żeromski's correspondence), articles and reviews in periodicals including the Kielce-based daily newspaper "Słowo Ludu" (1962 to 1969, then sporadically until 1988), "Polonistyka" (intermittently from 1968 to 1974), "Twórczość" (1968 and 1971), "Tygodnik Kulturalny" (intermittently from 1968 to 1982), "Pamiętnik Literacki” (sporadically in 1969 and 1988), "Przegląd Humanistyczny" (intermittently from 1969 to 1977), in the Kielce-based monthly "Przemiany" (1970 to 1987), where he signed off some of the pieces as (zja)) and in the yearbook "Rocznik Świętokrzyski" (1985 and 1989). He was awarded a doctoral degree from Warsaw University in 1971 for his dissertation Poglądy estetyczne i historycznoliterackie Stefana Żeromskiego [Stefan Żeromski's aesthetic and literary-historical views], which was supervised by Prof. Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski. In summer of the same year, he settled permanently in Kielce and started working at the teacher training college (which in 1973 became the Pedagogical University of Kielce – WSP). He was senior research assistant, assistant lecturer and then, from 1975, senior lecturer. From 1975 to 2006 he was director of the Department for Polish Literature of the Positivist and Young Poland Eras. He also served in administrative roles as associate dean (from 1972 to 1974) and dean of the Faculty of Humanities (from 1974 to 1978 and again from 1982 to 1984), while also serving as deputy director of the Institute of Polish Philology (from 1980 to 1982 and again from 1984 to 1986). In 1975 he joined the editorial committee, led by editor-in-chief Zbigniew Goliński, working on Stefan Żeromski's collected writings (Pisma zebrane) published by the Institute of Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN). He made significant contributions to the development of research on the history of the Young Poland literary movement, focusing above all on editing the writings and letters of Stefan Żeromski. In 1985 he was awarded his habilitation by IBL PAN for his study „Przedwiośnie” Stefana Żeromskiego w świetle dyskusji i polemik z 1925 roku (Stefan Żeromski's "The Coming Spring" in the context of the discussions and polemics of 1925). He continued working as a researcher and teacher at the Pedagogical University of Kielce which in 2000 became Akademia Świętokrzyska (the Holy Cross Region Academy). He also served as director of the Institute of Polish Philology between 1987 and 1991 and again from 1996 to 2002. He combined these duties with an editorial role with the teachers' periodical "Język Polski w Szkole Średniej" (Polish in Middle Schools) as head of the literary section between 1986/87. Between 1992 and 2000 he was director and editor-in-chief of the Pedagogical University's publishing house, while from 1996 to 2007 he was also professor at Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczno-Przyrodnicza (the Higher School of Humanities and Natural Sciences), a private university in Sandomierz. In 1996 he was made state-appointed professor of the humanities. He published articles, reviews and source texts in journals and periodicals including "Przegląd Humanistyczny" (intermittently between 1992 and 2008), "Ikar" (1993–95), "Wiadomości Kulturalne" (1994 and 1996), "Kieleckie Studia Filologiczne" (1997–98 and 2000) and in "Pamiętnik Literacki" (2013–15). His search for sources and information on Stefan Żeromski's correspondence and journalistic writing took Adamczyk to various parts of Poland and foreign cities, including Paris, Rome, Florence, Prague, Lviv and Vilnius. He retired in 2006 and stopped working at Akademia Świętokrzyska (which in 2008 became Uniwersytet Humanistyczno-Przyrodniczy Jana Kochanowskiego and then in 2011 Uniwersytet Jana Kochanowskiego w Kielcach – the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce). Between 2006 and 2015 he was employed as a professor at Akademia Humanistyczna im. A. Gieysztora (a private university) in Pułtusk. Following Z. Goliński's death in 2011, he became head of the editorial committee working on Stefan Żeromski's collected writings (Pisma zebrane). In 2013 he became a member of the Polish PEN Club and was awarded the J. Żuławski Editorial Prize (Nagroda Edytorska im. J. Żuławskiego) by the organisation for work on Żeromski's writings, particularly his letters. He is a four-time winner of the Prize of the Minister of Higher Education (in 1976, 1984, 1989 and 2011). For his work as a researcher and educator he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit (1975), the Knight's Cross (1984) and the Officer's Cross (2001) of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
In 1958 he married Danuta Domagała, a librarian and later professor of the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. They divorced in 1981. They had two daughters together, Agnieszka (married name: Bogucka; a teacher) and Justyna (married name: Dobrołowicz; an education expert and university teacher). He lives in Kielce.