Aniela Gruszecka

Aniela Gruszecka (1884–1976) was a Polish writer, literary critic, and author of historical novels for children and young people. Her best-known novel, Przygoda w nieznanym kraju (Adventure in an Unknown Country), has been described as the first Polish Sapphic novel.

Early life and education Gruszecka was born on 18 May 1884 in Warsaw, the daughter of , a novelist and publisher, and Józefa Certowicz, whose family came from Ukraine. She had two sisters and a brother. Gruszecka finished her school education in Kraków, passing her high school leaving exam with distinction as an external student at the boys' St. Anna's Gymnasium in May 1903 (one of her examiners was her future husband). She studied history at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and then went to the Zurich Polytechnic before studying chemistry and physics at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Until this time the study of scientific subjects had been largely reserved for males, so her choice was possibly dictated by ambition, the desire to intellectually equal (or surpass) the opposite sex, and to study subjects inaccessible for women in Poland.

Around 1908, she married a man named Wysokinski and lived for some time in Nancy in France. This marriage was later annulled and on 30 July 1913, she married Kazimierz Nitsch (1874–1958), a wealthy professor of linguistics at the Jagiellonian University, ten years her senior, who would become president of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. She would later describe his life and work in the book Cała życie nad przyrodą towarzyskią polskiego, published in 1976. Through her marriage she became associated with the intellectual and artistic environment of Kraków that she would later portray in Adventure in an Unknown Country. Their apartment in Kraków became an intellectual salon. They also travelled extensively.

Gruszecka also wrote historical novels for young people, notably: Król (King - 1913), W grodzie żaków (In the students' town - 1913), Od Karpat nad Bałtyk (From the Carpathians to the Baltic Sea - 1946), Nad jeziorem (By the Lake - 1921) and Powieść o kronice Galla (The Chronicle of Gallus Novel – Six volumes, 1960–1970). The multi-volume Chronicle of Gallus is an epic review of the Polish Chronicle, discussing its origins, historical significance and the scientific disputes it stirred among successive generations. Gruszecka collaborated with the magazine Przegląd Współczesny, in which she published many studies on literature. In the same magazine she also published reviews of several famous debuts by young writers, such as books by Witold Gombrowicz, Adolf Rudnicki and Zbigniew Uniłowski. She also wrote for Przegląd Współczesny, Slavische Rundschau and Kobieta Współczesna.

Death Gruszecka died on 18 April 1976 and was buried in the family tomb at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków.

The archives of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków contain unpublished typescripts and manuscripts by Gruszecka, including a children's novel entitled Dziewczynki (Girls), as well as a novel about the fate of post-war Polish migrants. In addition to extensive correspondence, the writer left scattered personal notes, kept since 1895. Interestingly, the archives are held in the name of her husband.