Elżbieta Szemplińska-Sobolewska

Elżbieta Szemplińska-Sobolewska (née Szemplińska, ; 1910–1991) was a Polish poet, prose writer and painter.

Szemplińska-Sobolewska's paternal uncle was Tadeusz Szempliński, a banker and signatory of the "Declaration of the Hundred of February 22, 1916" .

Growing up in Warsaw, Szemplińska-Sobolewska was educated at Gimnazjum im. M. Konopnickiej where she was a high school classmate of Janina Dłuska, the future wife of Czesław Miłosz. In 1928, Szemplińska-Sobolewska enrolled at the University of Warsaw. Part of the interwar generation of Polish poets known as the , Szemplińska-Sobolewska's work was reflective of the larger shifts within Polish culture and life. From 1940–1941, Szemplińska-Sobolewska was one of two Polish writers on the editorial board of Literatura i mystetstvo , the journal of the Lviv Organisation of the Union of Soviet Writers of Ukraine. However, Szemplińska-Sobolewska had little influence over the content of the magazine due to her lack of fluency in Ukrainian. Sometime between 1939 and 1940 Szemplińska-Sobolewska gave birth to the couple's first son.

Soviet Union Following the outbreak of the German–Soviet War in June 1941, Szemplińska-Sobolewska fled to Kharkov, UkrSSR (present-day, Ukraine) with Zygmunt Sobolewski and their son. In 1942, Szemplińska-Sobolewska's son died aged around 2 years. Szemplińska-Sobolewska and Sobolewski subsequently lived in the UzSSR (present-day, Uzbekistan) in the cities of Tashkent and Samarkand. Later the couple lived in Kuybyshev (present-day, Samara, Russia), Kivertsi (present-day, Ukraine). In 1944, the couple moved to Moscow where Szemplińska-Sobolewska gave birth to there second son.

According to Czesław Miłosz, Szemplińska-Sobolewska's experience of life under Soviet Communism made her determined to defect to the West.

Post-war From 1946 to 1948, Sobolewski served as the consul of the Republic of Poland in Luxembourg. During this time Szemplińska-Sobolewska published several poems in London under the pseudonym "Ryszard Bogumił", which were critical of the establishment of communist-rule in Poland.

Exile In 1948, the family fled first to France and then onto Rome. The couple were given new passports and identities by Kazimierz Papée, the Ambassador of the Polish Government in Exile to the Vatican. The couple then moved to Morocco and settled in Casablanca.

On the 31 January 1951, Sobolewski boarded a boat to Rome which subsequently disappeared. Sobolewski's body was later found on a beach in Andalusia, and was subsequently identified during an autopsy on the 25 November 1955.

In 1958, Szemplińska-Sobolewska emigrated to Paris.

Return to Poland

Szemplińska-Sobolewska returned to Warsaw in 1962.

On 27 April 1991, Szemplińska-Sobolewska died aged 80 in Warsaw, and is buried at Bródno Cemetery alongside her parents.

Publications Poetry

Novels

Szemplińska-Sobolewska, Elżbieta (1938–1939). .

Short stories

Children's literature

Lyrics Piotr Perkowski (music) Elżbieta Szemplińska (lyrics). Mieczysław Weinberg (music) Elżbieta Szemplińska (lyrics).

Awards and nominations Award Year Nominated work Result Polish Academy of Literature Youth Award 1935 The Birth of Man: A Novel. Part 1, Joyful Affirmation