KŁAK Czesław

Born on 21 April 1935 into a worker-peasant family in the village of Hadle Szklarskie near Przeworsk; son of Kazimierz Kłak and Izabela, née Rapszla. He was a pupil at the Elementary School in Hadle Szklarskie and Jawornik Polski from 1941 and then at the K. Morawski Grammar School (No. II) in Przemyśl from 1948. After completing advanced secondary education in 1952 he studied Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow, graduating with a master's degree in 1956. Between 1956 and 1960, he was a Polish teacher at the Nicolaus Copernicus Grammar School in Jarosław. From 1961 he was a librarian at the Voivodeship Education Library in Rzeszow before becoming a journalist with "Nowiny Rzeszowskie", where he edited the daily newspaper's cultural supplement "Widnokrąg" from 1961 to 1963. He made his debut in this publication in 1961 with the article Jan Zachariasiewicz – zapomniany pisarz z Radymna (Jan Zachariasiewicz – a forgotten writer from Radymno; no. 8). He continued to contribute until 1966, writing, among other thing, numerous theatre reviews (also using the by-lines: Aleksander Gronicki, Cz. Kł., Groń, (KK)). In November 1963, he was appointed to the Department of Polish Literature at the new Programme of the Philological-Historical Faculty of the Higher School of Education in Krakow (WSP – now the Pedagogical University of Krakow) that had been established in Rzeszow (in 1965 this structure became the Higher School of Education in Rzeszow [WSP], which was then merged into the new University of Rzeszow in 2001). He was initially paid by the hour as a teaching assistant before being appointed senior assistant at the Chair of Polish Literature and Language in 1964 (it became the Institute of Polish Philology in 1981). His research focused on nineteenth-century Polish literature, particularly historical novels and the fables surrounding the November Uprising in historiography and literature. He was also interested in Stanisław Pigoń's letters and scholarly activities, with Kłak responsible, among other things, for coordinating the transfer of Pigoń's library to Rzeszow, which enabled the library to form the Pigonianum Polish Studies Centre in 1982. He considers the 1966 essay Literacka młodość Jana Zachariasiewicza (The Early Works of Jan Zachariasiewicz) to be his proper debut. It was published in the edited volume Z tradycji kulturalnych Rzeszowa i Rzeszowszczyzny (Some Cultural Traditions of Rzeszow and the Rzeszow Region). His articles, reviews and column pieces appeared in "Kwartalnik Rzeszowski" (1966-67) and its successor "Profile" (1968, 1970-72, 1976), as well as in the bi-monthly "Ruch Literacki" (1967-72). He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1969 from Krakow WSP for his dissertation Powieści historyczne Jana Zachariasiewicza (Jan Zachariasiewicz's Historical Novels), which was supervised by Prof. Wincenty Danek. He was then appointed lecturer at WSP in Rzeszow. He published essays in "Prace Humanistyczne Rzeszowskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk" (1970), "Rocznik Naukowo-Dydaktyczny WSP w Rzeszowie" (1975-80, 1984; also editing selected issues: 1970 no. 8, 1975 no. 8, 1976 no. 30, 1979 no. 12, 1980 no. 13, and 1984 no. 16), "Rocznik Komisji Historycznoliterackiej PAN" (1979), and "Kwartalnik Historii Prasy Polskiej" (1986). Between 1972 and 1975, he was deputy rector at WSP in Rzeszow. From 1972 to 1991, he was head of the Department of Polish Literature (which became the Department of the History of Polish Literature in 1978). He joined the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society in 1979, serving as chair of the Rzeszow Branch from 1993 to 2008. In 1988, he received the Second Class Minister of Science and Higher Education Prize (for his achievements in 1987). He was awarded a habilitation degree in 1990 for his study Polski Leonidas. Rzecz o legendzie historycznej i literackiej generała Józefa Sowińskiego (The Polish Leonidas. On the historical and literary legacies of Józef Sowiński). He was subsequently appointed senior lecturer before being made associate professor at WSP in Rzeszow. From 1991 until his retirement in 2005 he was head of the Department of Romantic and Positivist Literature (in 1998/99 of the Department of Positivist Literature) at the Institute of Polish Philology at Rzeszow WSP. Between 1991 and 2001, he was editor-in-chief of "Zeszyty Naukowe Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej w Rzeszowie. Seria Filologiczna (Historia Literatury)", the WSP's journal on literary history. From 1993 to 1996, he was deputy rector at Rzeszow WSP. He has published articles and reviews in periodicals and journals including "Ojczyzna-Polszczyzna" (1993-95), "Fraza" (1999-2004 and 2017), "Tygodnik Powszechny" (1999), "Tyczyńskie Zeszyty Naukowe" (2001, 2005), "Ruch Literacki" (2002, 2008), "Nowa Polszczyzna” (2005, 2007), "Przegląd Humanistyczny" (2007), "Gazeta Uniwersytecka Pracowników i Studentów Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego" (2008), the Rzeszow-based "Gazeta Uniwersytecka" (2010), "Tematy i Konteksty" (2012, 2016), "Wieku XIX" (2014), and "Pamiętnik Literacki" (2016). In 1998, he was made state-appointed professor and full professor at WSP in Rzeszow (which became the University of Rzeszow in 2001). He was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences' Committee on Literary Studies (KNoL). He received the First Class Rector's Prize on several occasions. He has received awards, honours and prizes including the Gold Cross of Merit in 1979, the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Medal of the Commission of National Education and the Medal of the University of Rzeszów. He lives in Hadle Szklarskie.