Christopher Kasparek

Christopher Kasparek (born 1945) is a Scottish-born writer of Polish descent who has translated works by Ignacy Krasicki, Bolesław Prus, Florian Znaniecki, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Marian Rejewski and Władysław Kozaczuk, as well as the Polish-Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, 1791.

He has published papers on the history of Enigma decryption; Bolesław Prus and his novel Pharaoh; the theory and practice of translation; and the phenomenon of multiple independent discovery.

Life

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Polish Armed Forces veterans of World War II, Kasparek lived several years in London, England, before moving with his family in 1951 to the United States.

In 1966 he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied Polish literature with the 1980 Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz.

In 1978 Kasparek received an M.D. degree from Warsaw Medical School, in Poland.

Writer

Kasparek has translated works by historian of philosophy Władysław Tatarkiewicz ("The Concept of Poetry," 1975; On Perfection, 1979; A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics, 1980); military historian Władysław Kozaczuk (Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two, 1984^[1]); novelist and short-story writer Bolesław Prus (several stories, and Pharaoh, 2nd edition, 2001); and other Polish authors.

Kasparek's translation of the Constitution of May 3, 1791 (published 1985, republished in many venues), is available — augmented with the Free Royal Cities Act — on Wikisource.

His translations of verse include selected Fables and Parables by Ignacy Krasicki.

See also

• Biuro Szyfrów
• Marian Rejewski
• Bolesław Prus
• Pharaoh (historical novel by Prus)
• "A Legend of Old Egypt" (short story by Prus)
• "Fading Voices" (micro-story by Prus)
• "Mold of the Earth" (micro-story by Prus)
• "The Living Telegraph" (micro-story by Prus)
• "Shades" (micro-story by Prus)
• The Most General Life Ideals (book by Prus)
• Constitution of May 3, 1791
• Fables and Parables by Ignacy Krasicki
• History of philosophy in Poland
• Translation
• Physician writer

Notes

1. ^ Enigma, edited, translated and augmented by Kasparek, has been described as "the Bible" on the Polish foundations of World War II Enigma decryption by Zdzisław Jan Kapera in his "Appendix F" to Władysław Kozaczuk and Jerzy Straszak, Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code, New York, Hippocrene Books, 2004, ISBN 0-7818-0941-X, pp. 135–36.

References

• "Kasparek, Christopher," Who's Who in Polish America, 1st edition, 1996–1997, New York, Bicentennial Publishing Corp., 1996, ISBN 0-7818-0010-1, p. 186.

Persondata
Name	Kasparek, Christopher
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1945
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death