Czesław Miłosz (1911-2004) - poet, prose writer, essayist, translator. Nobel Prize-winner in 1980 and Polish Nike Prize-winner in 1998 for 'Piesek przydrożny' (Roadside Dog). Holds many honorary degrees, including from Harvard University and the Jagiellonian University. After 1951 he lived outside Poland. In the 1990s he returned to Poland and settled in Cracow. He was professor at the Department of Slavic Literature and Languages at the University of California at Berkeley, and later a professor at Harvard University. His most important collections of poetry are: 'Ocalenie' (Rescue, 1945), 'Światło dzienne' (Light of Day, 1953), 'Traktat poetycki' (1957; translated as 'A Treatise on Poetry'), 'Miasto bez imienia' (City Without a Name, 1969), 'To' (It, 2000). He is the author of magnificent essays, journalism and prose, for example 'Umysł zniewolony' (translated The Captive Mind, 1953), 'Rodzinna Europa' (Native Realm), 'Ziemia Ulro (The Land of Ulro, 1977), 'A History of Polish Literature' (1969), and 'Druga przestrzeń' (The Second Space, 2002). Czesław Miłosz was awarded with many prestigious titles and honours like the Order of the White Eagle in 1994. The year 2011 has been calabrated as "Miłosz Year".
