Jerzy Kulczycki

Jerzy Sławomir Kulczycki
Jerzy Sławomir Kulczycki
Born	12 October 1931 (age 95); Lwów
Died	18 July 2013 (aged 81); London
Occupation(s)	Engineer, publisher, activist
Known for	Founder of Odnowa publishing house; owner of Orbis Books; initiator of the Kulczycki (Orbis Books) award

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Jerzy Kulczycki, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 11 August 2025

Jerzy Sławomir Kulczycki (born 12 October 1931 in Lwów, passed away 18 July 2013 in London) was a Polish engineer, publisher, and activist within the bookselling community. In 1996, he initiated the Kulczycki (Orbis Books) award dedicated to Polish Studies.

Biography

At the age of nine, in 1940, Kulczycki and his mother were forcibly relocated by Soviet authorities to Kazachstan. His father, who served as a judge, was executed by the NKVD. By 1942, the family moved to Iran to join the ranks of Anders' Army. Beginning in 1944, he pursued education at the exiled Corps of Cadets. After settling in the United Kingdom in 1947, he earned a civil engineering degree from the University of London in 1954, with further specializations in hydrology (1958) and road engineering (1964). That same year, he married Aleksandra, also a Polish displaced person; together they had three children.

Publishing and activism

Kulczycki was engaged with the Christian Democratic Labour Party (Stronnictwo Pracy) within the Polish émigré community. In 1964, he established the "Odnowa" (Renewal) publishing house in London, focusing on producing émigré literature and reissuing Polish works by authors such as Karol Popiel, Amintore Fanfani, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, and George Orwell. He brought on Stanisław Gebhardt as co-director; this publishing venture remained active until 1990.

Orbis Books

In 1972, Kulczycki and his wife took ownership of Orbis Books, a Polish bookstore originally founded in Edinburgh in 1944 and located on New Oxford Street. They later moved it to Earl's Court—a post-war center for the Polish community elite—where it operated until 2005 before relocating to Hammersmith. The bookstore ceased operations in 2011. During Communist rule in Poland, Orbis Books played a crucial role as a distributor of banned Western literature and was a primary outlet for the Paris-based journal Kultura.

The Kulczycki Book Prize was created by him in 1996 to recognize peer-reviewed scholarship concerning Polish culture and politics; this award is managed by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).

Kulczycki also held the position of director at the Institute of Polish-Jewish Studies. He succumbed to cancer in London in 2013 at age 82. His memoir, titled Atakować książką ("Attack with the Book"), was published posthumously in 2016.

Distinctions

Recognized as a bookseller by the exiled Polish Writers Association in 1981.
Awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta by the Polish President in Exile in 1990.
Received the Officers' grade of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1998.
Honored with the Commanders' grade of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 2005.

Bibliography

External links