To the birthday boy

"Franciszek Raczkowski - bookseller, bibliophile, self-taught by education, was not only a lover of books, but also, as they said, a «walking bibliography»" - this is how Maria Gawarecka describes the protagonist of Józef Czechowicz's epic poem.

He was born on 11 September 1871 in Włocławek. He started apprenticeship as a bookseller at the age of 12. In 1900, he opened his own bookstore in Lublin at 36 Krakowskie Przedmieście st., and then - according to Feliks Araszkiewicz - a true paradise for bibliophiles started. Eight years later, he sold the bookstore to Gebethner and Wolff in Warsaw, remaining the head of the Lublin Branch until the end of 1926.

It is worth recalling that from 1937 he worked in the Bookshop of St. Adalbert (Św. Wojciecha), which was located in the building of the "Victoria" hotel at 1 Kapucyńska st.. During the bombing of Lublin on 9 September 1939, he and the employees of the bookstore, risking his life, saved its book collection. In July 1944, the Nazis blew up the ruins of the former "Victoria" hotel, and thus also the St. Adalbert bookstore was completely destroyed. Raczkowski then tried to save the remnants of its stock. The son of a Lublin bookseller in his memoirs writes: "From the rubble and ashes he himself and with the help of a few bookstore staff and passers-by extracted - a Polish book for which he devoted his entire life ..." The publications that survived bear the following bookplate: "Guard the treasure of the Polish book. Damaged book retrieved from the rubble of the Bookshop of St. Wojciech in Lublin at Kapuchinska st.".

He died on 18 May 1947. As Maria Gawarecka wrote: "His whole life was associated with the book and almost all with Lublin." He belonged to the Society of Friends of Sciences (Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk) in Lublin, as well as to the group of founding members of the Lublin Society of Book Lovers (Lubelskie Towarzystwo Miłośników Ksiązki). He published the first two items of the LTMK Library at his own expense.

In 1933, bibliophiles celebrated the 50th anniversary of Raczkowski's work by publishing "Dwie satyry” by Franciszek Zabłocki. A significant dedication was printed in the book: "To Franciszek Raczkowski, who was able to combine the profession of a bookseller with love for books and spread the cult of the book throughout his life in Lublin, in the 50th anniversary of his work as a founding member, presents the Lublin Society of Book Lovers."