On Ludwiks

The original manuscript of the epigrams by Józef Czechowicz O Ludwikach (About Ludwiks) is a part of Fr. Ludwik Zalewski’s materials. It is a part of a collection of sixteen epigrams by the Lublin poet, which are an interesting testimony to his activity within the Lublin Book Lovers Society. The texts, apart from one, are all written on the back of the invitation to the Blue Youth Day (an organisation promoting alcohol abstinence and a healthy lifestyle) on April 21st, 1929.

The epigram O Ludwikach opens the collection (this is evidenced by the number ‘1’ written in a red crayon in Czechowicz’s hand in the lower right corner of the card). Its heroes are – as probably Fr. Zalewski wrote on the reverse –himself and Ludwik Kamykowski.

Father Ludwik Zalewski (1878-1952) was a colourful and important figure in Lublin’s cultural life in the first half of the 20th century. After graduating from the Lublin Theological Seminary, he studied philosophy at the University of Freiburg, where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy. Upon returning to Lublin, he was a professor and library manager of the seminary. He was an author of many historical publications, a collector of books and bookplates. At his initiative, on June 18th, 1926, the Lublin Society of Book Lovers was established. He was friends with the Lublin literary community, sometimes he was even called the priest of the Lublin parish of poets.

Ludwik Kamykowski (1891-1944) was a literary historian and teacher. He studied at the University of Lviv and Jagiellonian University (among the others Polish studies). In 1928 he was awarded a doctorate and in 1935 habilitation at Jagiellonian University. In the late 1920s and early ‘30s he worked in Lublin as a Polish language teacher and was one of the members of LSBL (Lublin Society of Book Lovers). During the war, he was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Oranienburg, from where he returned with advanced tuberculosis. Despite a serious illness, he engaged in underground university education. He died just before the end of the war.

Jarosław Cymerman