The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University is the home of Czesław Miłosz's archives. We will celebrate the centenary of the birth of the great poet on November 4-5, 2011.

Miłosz spent the first half of his life in Poland, then about ten years in France, and the second part of his life in the USA. The scope of Miłosz’s thought covers the whole of the twentieth century, and his works explore the most central questions of Western modernity, including the cultural and political intersections between Europe and America. His teaching at Berkeley, his friendships, and personal involvement in the issues of the day made him one of the central figures in American intellectual life. The Nobel Prize he received in 1980 honored his achievement both as a Polish and as an American writer.

Adopting an American vantage point, presentations will focus on bridging the intellectual, academic, and poetic sides of Milosz’s work that in significant ways shaped the cultural landscape on this side of the Atlantic.

An exhibition on Miłosz (based on the Beinecke collection of his papers), poetry readings, and film screenings will accompany the conference.

This symposium has been made possible by the generous support of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The European Studies Council, with a Title VI National Resource Center grant from the US Department of Education, The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund,
The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Whitney Humanities Center, Polish Cultural Institute, The Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland, and The Institute of the Book, Poland.