Czeslaw Milosz

Milosz may be my favorite intellectual of the 20th century. The Captive Mind was a captivating (sorry about the bad pun) examination of the moral compromises that thinkers and dreamers make in a totalitarian regime. (By the way, Lisa, can you return my copy when you get a chance?) And though he passed away in 2004, there's still new work to read.

Legends of Modernity is a compilation of letters and essays from 1942-43, when Milosz lived in Nazi-occupied Poland, and is being published in English for the first time. Reviewer Robert Fagan describes the Milosz's writing as "concise and penetrating." Here's one example: "Evil has become complicated, it has become more clever and sly, and he who wants to confront it must arm himself with equivalent perspicacity," an excellent reminder of the strange strange condition of living in Poland in the 20th century.

I saw Milosz live as an undergrad; he and translator and friend Robert Hass were discussing the nature of poetry translation. Two things about Milosz struck me; his intense eyebrows (picture) and his easy relationship with genius and art. While Hass spoke of technique and difficulties, Milosz commented in grumbly tones about inspiration, and just knowing something was right.

I hope Milosz turns out to be like Tupac and Biggie, continuing to release new works from beyond the grave.