Debiut… po debiucie – Tomasza Augusta Olizarowskiego

Abstract

The official literary debut of Tomasz August Olizarowski – highly praised by the first critics – is considered to be a short book of poetry published in 1836 in Kraków, containing two verse novels: Zawerucha. Powieść ukraińska (Zawerucha. Ukrainian novel) and Bruno. Meanwhile, Kórnik Library stores a booklet signed with the poet’s name containing two lyrical series of psalms and sonnets, as well as a dumka, probably published as early as 1832 in Lviv. This paper presents the contents of both volumes: from Kraków and Lviv, i.e. the official and the chronologically earlier Olizarowski’s debut. It closes with a presentation of the poet’s returns to the issues and forms of his debut, since throughout his life Olizarowski continued to correct, amend and extend his texts published as early as 1832 and 1836. He was probably preparing a large part of them for the next, third edition of his works, which unfortunately never materialized.