DaBrowska, Maria

Born Oct. 6, 1889, in Russówo, in Kalisz District; died May 19, 1965, in Warsaw. Polish writer.

Dabrowska was born into an impoverished gentry family. She attended the University of Lausanne and the University of Brussels. Her literary activity began in the second decade of the 20th century. The stories in her first collections, written for children, were didactic, patriotic, and publicistic. A lyrical quality characterizes the stories of the collection Smile of Childhood (1923), depicting springtime in nature and in the life of man. Dabrowska’s best stories—the collections People From There (1925) and Signs of Life (1938)—reveal a striving for spiritual strength, which makes joy possible even in poverty and ignorance. These stories contain a strong element of protest against Catholic dogmas and their blighting effect on life. Dabrowska’s most important work, the tetralogy Nights and Days (1932-34), is an outstanding achievement of Polish critical realism of the 20th century. The tetralogy is imbued with the ideas of humanism, democracy, love of homeland, and national equality; it is distinguished by subtle psychological analysis and richness of language.

Dabrowska was also the author of historical dramas: The Orphan Genius (1939; published 1957) and Stanistaw and Bogumit (1945; published, 1947). The collection The Morning Star (1955) contains stories portraying the struggle against the Nazi occupation and the building of a new life in People’s Poland. Dabrowska is well known as a publicist, the author of works on the cooperative movement, a translator, and a literary critic. She has written articles on B. Prus, L. N. Tolstoy, N. V. Gogol, and J. Conrad. Dabrowska received the State Prize of the Polish People’s Republic in 1955.