Jan K. Kott
Literary critic, scholar, author
Born Oct. 27, 1914, Warsaw, Poland; came to U.S., 1966; son of Maurycy and Kazimiera (Wertenstein); married Lidia (Steinhaus); children: Michal, Lidia Teresa.
Education: Master of Laws (M.L.), University of Warsaw, 1936; Ph.D., University of Lodz (Poland), 1947.
Career: prof., University of Wroclaw, 1949-53, University of Warsaw, 1953-66; visiting prof., Yale University, New Haven (CT), 1966-67, 1968-69, California University, Berkeley, 1967-68, Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), 1968, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (Israel), 1972; prof. (comparative literature and English), State University of New York (SUNY), Stony Brook, 1969-85; Retired.
Author, i.a.: Szekspir Wspolczesny, 1961, (Shakespeare Our Contemporary, 1964); Theatre Notebook, 1968; The Eating of the Gods, 1973; Arcadia amara, 1978; The Theater of Essence, 1984; Kamienny Potok, Essays, 1986; The Bonom Translation: Marlowe and Shakespeare and the Carnival Tradition, 1987; Przyczynek do biografii, 1990; Pisma wybrane, and La Vie en Sursis, 1991; The Memory of the Body, Leben auf Raten, and The Gender of Rosalind, 1992; editor, Four Decades of Polish 'Essays, 1990.
Member of: Polish PEN-Club (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists International Association); Polish Authors Union - Zwiazek Literatow Polskich (Z.L.P.)
Honors: honorary member, Master of Law Association (MLA), 1964; Herder Award, Vienna (Austria), 1964; grant, Ford Foundation, 1965; A. Jurzykowski Award. 1969; fellowship, Guggenheim Foundation, 1972-73; George G. Nathan Award, 1985; Getty scholarship, Central for the History of Art and Humanities, 1985-86; Cross of Valor; Officier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France).
Served with: Polish Army, September '39 Campaign, rifleman; Polish People's Army, 2nd lieutenant, 1943-45.
Languages: Polish, French, English.
Hobbies: hiking, walking.
Home: 29 Quaker Path, Stony Brook, NY 117904.
From: "Who's Who in Polish America" 1st Edition 1996-1997, Boleslaw Wierzbianski editor; Bicentennial Publishing Corporation,
New York, NY, 1996