Blaski i cienie księgarsko-wydawniczej działalności Józefa Joachima Okońskiego w świetle korespondencji z Elizą Orzeszkową

Abstract

This article contributes to research on Warsaw’s bookselling practices in the second half of the nineteenth century by presenting previously unknown archival sources - among them Okoński’s letters to Kraszewski - and an epistolary dialogue between Okoński and one of the leading writers of Polish Positivism. It emphasizes both the documentary value of these materials and the historical significance of Okoński himself - a figure now almost forgotten, yet once regarded as the proprietor of one of Warsaw’s most modern and best-stocked bookstores. Through an analysis of these archival records, the study sheds new light on the mechanisms of book distribution, the promotion of foreign literature, and the role of the bookseller-publisher in shaping readership, thereby making a significant contribution to the historiography of the Polish book market. The appended set of letters from Okoński to Orzeszkowa not only attests to the writer’s deliberate search for reading material but also offers incidental insights into the condition of Polish bookselling in the latter half of the nineteenth century.