Edmund Niziurski

Edmund Niziurski - (born July 10, 1925 in Kielce, Poland) - is a popular Polish writer, author of hundreds of humorous novels and stories for children, adolescents and adults, written with a specific kind of irony. Niziurski also is a sociologist and a lawyer.

Life

Niziurski was born into a middle class family, his father, Stanislaw, was a civil servant. He studied at the Jan Sniadecki Middle School in Kielce, but did not complete education there because of German and Soviet attack on Poland. In September 1939, together with family, he was evacuated to Hungary, but returned to the area of Kielce in 1940. During World War II, he attended illegal high school in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, where he graduated in 1943. Niziurski spent the war in the village of Jeleniec, near Ostrowiec.

After the war, he studied law at Lublin Catholic University and Jagiellonian University, in late 1940s also took up sociology and journalism. In 1947 he completed legal studies, in the same year Niziurski got married with Zofia Barbara Kowalska. He lived in Kielce, then in Katowice and finally, in 1952, moved to Warsaw, where he has been living since then. He worked as a journalist for "Wiez" weekly, at the some time writing his own books. Niziurski is a member of Association of Polish Writers ("Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich").

Career

Niziurski debuted in 1944 with a poem published in "Biuletyn Informacyjny", a magazine issued by the Home Army. After the war, he cooperated with several magazines, such as "Płomyk", "Świat Młodych", also with the Polish Radio, for which he wrote kids’ shows. His stories in the course of the time became very popular among children and teenagers. Niziurski's books are very dynamic, witty and humorous, but also with elements of sensation. He also wrote five novels for adult readers, but they are not so popular. In 1975 he was awarded the Order of the Smile.

The most famous novels

* "Księga urwisów" ("The Book of the Brats"), Iskry, Warsaw, 1954, it is on the list of compulsory books in Polish schools,
* "Siódme wtajemniczenie" ("The Seventh Initiation"),
* "Sposób na Alcybiadesa" ("How To Get Alcibiades"), Iskry, Warsaw 1964, also a 1998 movie imdb title|0144619|Spona
* "Niewiarygodne przygody Marka Piegusa" ("Unbelievable Adventures of Marek Piegus")