Ryszard Kapuściński: Information from Answers.com

Ryszard Kapuściński
Relaxing in Warsaw, 17 May 1997
Born	March 4, 1932(1932-03-04) Pińsk, Poland (now in Brest Voblast, Belarus).
Died	January 23, 2007 (aged 74) Warsaw, Poland
Occupation	historian & journalist
Ethnicity	Polish
Official website

Ryszard Kapuściński (Polish pronunciation: [ˈrɨʂart kapuɕˈt͡ɕiɲski] ( listen); March 4, 1932 - January 23, 2007) was a Polish journalist whose dispatches in book form brought him a global reputation. Also a photographer and poet, he was born in Pińsk – now in Belarus – in the Kresy Wschodnie, or eastern borderlands of the second Polish Republic. Much of Kapuściński's work is considered to ascend to the heights of literature.

1 Third World reportage and other work
2 Author
3 Praise, honours and critiques
4 Criticism and accusations
5 Selected bibliography
6 Notes and references
7 See also
8 External links

Third World reportage and other work

During the years from 1954 to 1981 Kapuściński was a member of Polish United Workers' Party. In 1964, after honing his skills on domestic stories, he "was appointed by the Polish Press Agency (PAP) as its only foreign correspondent, and for the next ten years he was 'responsible' for fifty countries."^[1] Since 1965 he traveled around the developing world and reported on wars, coups and revolutions in Asia, Europe and the Americas; including the Football War a "bloody, scarcely believable conflict that Honduras and El Salvador waged in 1969 over a pair of soccer games."^[1] When he finally returned to Poland, he had lived through twenty-seven revolutions and coups, been jailed 40 times and survived four death sentences.^[2] In the English speaking world, Kapuściński is best known for his reporting from Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, when he witnessed first-hand the end of the European colonial empires on that continent. Italian journalist Tiziano Terzani and Ryszard Kapuściński shared the same vision of journalism.[3]

Author

From the early 1960s onwards, Kapuściński published books of increasing literary craftsmanship characterized by sophisticated narrative technique, psychological portraits of characters, a wealth of stylization and metaphor and unusual imagery that serves as means of interpreting the perceived world. Kapuściński's best-known book, The Emperor, concerns itself with the decline of Haile Selassie's anachronistic regime in Ethiopia. Shah of Shahs, on the fall of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and Imperium, about the last days of the Soviet Union, have enjoyed similar success.^[3]

Kapuściński was fascinated not only by exotic worlds and people, but also by books: he approached foreign countries first through literature, spending months reading before each trip. He was skilled in listening to the diverse people he met, but he was also capable of "reading" the hidden sense of the scenes he encountered: the way the Europeans moved out of Angola, a discussion regarding alimony in the Tanganyikan parliament, the reconstruction of frescoes in the new Russia—he turned each of these vignettes into a metaphor of historical transformation. This tendency to process private adventures into a greater social synthesis made Kapuściński an eminent thinker, and the volumes of the ongoing Lapidarium series are a fascinating record of the shaping of a reporter's observations into philosophical reflections on the world and people.

In Poland, Kapuściński was also known as a poet. In November, 2007, Biblioasis published Kapuściński's selected poems in English, I Wrote Stone, bringing this aspect of Kapuściński's work to an English audience for the first time.

Praise, honours and critiques

Salman Rushdie wrote about him: "One Kapuściński is worth more than a thousand whimpering and fantasizing scribblers. His exceptional combination of journalism and art allows us to feel so close to what Kapuściński calls the inexpressible true image of war".^[4]

Although he was frequently mentioned as a favorite to win the Nobel Prize in literature, it was never awarded to him. In a 2006 interview with Reuters, Kapuściński said that he wrote for "people everywhere still young enough to be curious about the world." This quote from Kapuściński may be the most important. Introducing him into college level courses provides another view to those students about the world of the Cold War and the role of dictators, "revolutions" and the US and Soviet's attempts to influence the world. He died on January 23, 2007, following a grave illness.^[5] Since his death he has been offered many epitaphs in the press, such as, "The master of modern journalism",^[6] "Translator of the World" and "The Greatest Reporter in the World",^[7] "Herodotus of our times",^[8] "Third World chronicler".^[9]^[10] His work has been criticised, however, for factual inaccuracies and for the image he creates of Africa.^[11]

Criticism and accusations

Specific elements of Kapuściński's writings have been questioned.^[12]

In May 2007, the Polish edition of Newsweek magazine revealed that Kapuściński worked for the Communist Polish secret service from 1965 to 1972 or 1977, and that he had reported on several of his colleagues.^[13] In an article in Slate Magazine, writer Jack Shafer decried the general belief that Kapuściński was a genius, calling him a fabulist who did not adhere to the basic rules of journalism.^[14] As part of his criticism, Shafer cited a compendium of Kapuściński's misinformation and exaggeration by anthropology professor John Ryle.^[15] His condemnation was rebutted by Meghan O'Rourke in Slate five days later; O'Rourke contended that Kapuściński's invention of petty details to reveal a larger truth did not make him a bad journalist.^[16]

Selected bibliography

Works available in English

Another Day of Life (Jeszcze dzień życia) (1976)
The Soccer War (Wojna futbolowa) (1978)
The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (Cesarz) (1978)
Shah of Shahs (Szachinszach) (1982)
Imperium (Imperium) (1993)
The Shadow of the Sun (Heban) (2001)
Travels with Herodotus (Podróże z Herodotem) (2007^[17])
Encountering the Other: The Challenge for the Twenty-First Century (Spotkanie z innym jako wyzwanie XXI wieku) (2007^[18])
I Wrote Stone: The Selected Poetry of Ryszard Kapuściński (2007)

Works currently unavailable in English

The Polish Bush (Busz po polsku) (1962) — A collection of early essays.
Black Stars (Czarne gwiazdy) (1963) — A book which focuses on Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba.
The Kirghiz Dismounts (Kirgiz schodzi z konia) (1968) — Essays and articles about the (then) Asian and Caucasian Soviet Republic.
If All Africa... (1968) — A collection of essays and articles about Africa.
Why Karl Von Spreti Died (Dlaczego zginął Karl von Spreti) (1970) — A book about Guatemala during the 1960s and 1970s, in the background of the assassination of Karl von Spreti.
Christ With a Rifle on His Shoulder (Chrystus z karabinem na ramieniu) (1975) — A book which focuses on the partisan movements in Africa, Latin America and Middle East.
An Invitation to Georgia (1983)
The Notebook (Notes) (1986) — A collection of the author's poetry.
Lapidarium (1990)
Lapidarium II (1995)
Lapidarium III (1997)
Lapidarium IV (2000)
Out of Africa (2000) — The author's first photo album.
Lapidarium V (2002)
A Reporter's Self Portrait (Autoportret reportera) (2003) — A collection of interviews with and quotes by Kapuściński.
Lapidarium VI (2006)