18
PARTISAN REVIEW
in the independent presses. As members of the underground publishing
house Krog have testified, in 1981 they were able to publish Milosz's
Collected Poems
six months earlier than the state publishing houses could.
In
the late eighties and early nineties, there was a change in the way
Milosz's books were published: at first in the Literary Institute's editions
and then in Poland. Later, his books appeared in Znak almost at the same
time as in Paris. This was the case for
Chronicles,
published in Paris in 1987
and in Krakow less than a year later, and wi th
A Year oj the Hunter
(Paris
1990, Krakow 1991). The breakthrough book was
Provinces
(1991); on the
cover of the Krakow edition is the following statement: "Initial ly this
book was to have been published by the Literary Institute in Paris, which
has graciously granted Znak rights to the first edition." Now, it was possi–
ble to publish almost all books in Poland, and the Literary Institute
gradually limited its activities to both of its journals,
Kultura
and
Historical
Notebooks.
The first edi tion of Milosz's next book appeared exclusively
from Znak. Was it a coincidence that its title was
SearchingJor the Homeland?
The new and beautiful Milosz books appearing in Poland these past few
years, including last year's best-selling
Road-side Dog,
prove that, after many
years of difficult searching, he has indeed been able to find his homeland.
The invisible rope leading him there turned out to be sufficiently strong.
Robert Faggen:
Now,Jerzy will entertain questions from the audience.
Audience member:
Were there so many underground publications because
they were a market success? This was commercial publishing in a certain way.
Jerzy
lUg:
Publishing in the underground was a social service and a duty by
people who fel t this kind of responsibili ty. But it also was good business:
the books sold out immediately, and there always were more readers than
books, so some people may have done these things to do business.
Audience member:
How were they distributed?
Jerzy
IIIg:
It's a secret. By vol unteers, by students, by members of the
printing houses who at the same time distributed, sold, and edited.
It
worked best in university circles but also in factories, to members of
Solidari ty.
In
the underground society peopl e trus ted each other.
During the official existence of Solidarity between the strike in the
Gdansk shipyards and martial law, the underground press rose to the sur–
face and worked almost legally. The secret service didn't stop the
persecutions that took place earlier, before the Gdansk strike and after
martial law.
