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| Matthew the Young King. Adapted by Edith and Sidney Sulkin from the Polish Tale of J. Korczak. Illustrated by Irena Lorentowicz. |
It is not known about the contacts between Roy Publishers and Edith and Sidney Sulkin, the translators of Korczak's Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Probably Edith was the link and it is possible that she knew Marian Kister, the publisher, or his wife Hanna. It is also likely that Edith did, the very first, raw translation, and her husband "adapted" it thereafter for the American readers.
Edith Sulkin was born Chilewicz in Poland in 1921. She came to the USA before WWII. Married to Sidney Sulkin with whom she translated Korczak´s Matthew the Young King. After the war, she went with Sidney to Scandinavia as he was appointed as CBS correspondent there. Edith Sulkin traveled as a 23-year-old reporter through England, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Holland, and Germany. She wrote after that the book Continent in Limbo. A personal story of Europe's people in the crucial years, 1946-47. The guns were silent but the peace had not yet begun.
This report is in terms of people rather than governments. Equipped with their language and the knowledge of how to approach them, she was able to assemble a remarkable picture of how the people of Europe came through the war.
Sidney Sulkin was a novelist, playwright, poet, and short story writer, he also worked for the Voice of America. He was with the Kiplinger organization for 25 years and was the magazine's education editor and managing editor before being named editor. He was also on the board of Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc. Sidney graduate of Harvard University. During World War II, he was chief of worldwide English programs at the Voice of America and chief of news at the American Broadcasting Station in Europe. After WWII ended he also was a special correspondent in Scandinavia for CBS and wrote articles for U.S. and European newspapers and magazines.
This report is in terms of people rather than governments. Equipped with their language and the knowledge of how to approach them, she was able to assemble a remarkable picture of how the people of Europe came through the war.
Sidney Sulkin was a novelist, playwright, poet, and short story writer, he also worked for the Voice of America. He was with the Kiplinger organization for 25 years and was the magazine's education editor and managing editor before being named editor. He was also on the board of Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc. Sidney graduate of Harvard University. During World War II, he was chief of worldwide English programs at the Voice of America and chief of news at the American Broadcasting Station in Europe. After WWII ended he also was a special correspondent in Scandinavia for CBS and wrote articles for U.S. and European newspapers and magazines.
Marian Kister was a well-known publisher in Warszawa prior to WWII. He left Poland for London just before WWII started. Kister's wife Hanna overcame difficulties to leave Poland and they were reunited in Paris on May 10, 1940. Through Portugal, the Kister family reached the United States in March 1941. Here they started Roy publishers in New York.
The first book Kisters published in the USA was 1942, The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt, by Rutka (Rulka) Langer and it sold 5,000 copies. The next book, Kossak's Blessed Are the Meek become the Book of the Month Club for April 1944. Actually, just a year and a half after the Kisters arrived in New York, Kisters Roy Publishers was on a solid footing. It grew through translations into English of several Polish writers.
In January 1945 Kister published translated into English Korczak´s Król Macius Pierwszy - Matthew The Young King*. The cover of this book /see above), by Irena Lorentowicz is rather special and should be analyzed.
I am sure that Kister knew well Korczak. Kisters "Rój Publishing" at 1 Kredytowa str in Warszawa was quite near Mortkowicz Publishing house at 12 Mazowiecka street. In the same building at Mazowiecka was a well-known coffee house Mała Ziemiańska where artists, writers, and publishers use to meet.
It is known how Marian and Hanna Kistner fled from Poland when WWII started in September 1939. I am, however, curious about Edith Sulkin - Edyta Chilewicz's years in Poland and how she, managed to reach the USA. She was born in 1923 (or 1921) and if this date is correct she was just 16 (18) when WWII started.
King Matt the First or Matthew the Young King by Janusz Korczak - The first English translation, brought out by Roy Publishing (Marian Kistner), had a very special notice in 1945: ....Korczak was alive.... There were also other mistakes in the note from the publisher. It was not 1943 but 1942 when the Warsaw Ghetto Jews, approx. 300 000 were murdered in Treblinka. Among them were Janusz Korczak, Stefa Wilczynska, numerous teachers, and 239 children from "Dom Sierot"!
