Graham Greene | 66 letters signed, to Tadeusz Murek, with related correspondence, 1951-1990

Graham Greene

Correspondence with Tadeusz Murek

comprising five autograph letters signed by Greene, 61 letters signed by Greene, 20 letters with secretarial signatures, and two telegrams sent by Greene, discussing Murek's translations of Greene, providing information on his books and publishing activities ("...[Loser Take All] is quite a departure for me as it is a very light comedy with a happy ending! I hope however to finish a serious novel THE QUIET AMERICAN with an Indo-China setting by the autumn...", 21 April 1955), discussing the appearance of his works in Poland and the USSR, making arrangements for Greene's 1955 trip to Poland, the censorship of his subsequent articles about the visit ("...I think it is unlikely that your newspapers stopped translating the notes forom the Sunday Times because I attacked the Roman Curia [...] I am afraid that my attitude to Pax was the trouble..." 16 February 1956), later letters written when Murek was in the West including more open political discussions ("...You seem to think that I am unsympathetic as regards the position in Poland which isn't true at all. I don't believe in the whiteness of the Soviet Union!..." 22 May 1983), agreeing to interviews (but not a book-length work) and responding to questions ("...as one of a family of six children I had a very happy childhood up to the time that I went to boarding-school. There I was very unhappy and as a result went to a psychoanalist [sic]..." 18 March 1988) as well as personal affairs including the death of Murek's first wife ("...She has gone to the only free world which exists...", 4 July [1980]), his travels and health, planned meetings with Murek, and occasionally helping him with visas ("...I am afraid that I am the last person to help you as far as the Americans are concerned. They regard me with the utmost suspicion!...", 9 October 1978), altogether c.90 pages, 4to and 8vo, various locations including London and Antibes, 26 June 1951 to 11 October 1990, with 77 envelopes

[together with:] retained copies of 29 lettters by Murek to Greene, loosely inserted in revelant envelopes

A SUBSTANTIAL CORRESPONDENCE WITH GREENE'S POLISH TRANSLATOR. Tadeusz Murek (1919-1996) was a Pole whose forty-year correspondence and friendship with Graham Greene began when he wrote to the author to enquire about children's books for an article in the Polish Catholic press. Murek was later to write that he began translating Greene in 1948, but his correspondence with the author began three years later. Their professional professional relationship gradually developed into a friendship in the years that followed. Murek organised Greene’s visit to Poland in November 1955, published several articles about Greene's books in the Polish Catholic press, and published several interviews with Greene in Polish and Swiss magazines He also translated some of Greene’s works into Polish: The Living Room was staged in 1956, The Revolver in the Corner Cupboard was published in 1959 and J'Accuse in 1982.  

Although he lived in the Communist bloc, Murek had an unusual level of freedom to travel to the West through his work in the accounting and financial planning departments of various state-owned enterprises. He eventually become Manager of the Import Department of Polish Foreign trade Company "Centrozap", and in retirement lived in Switzerland (where he studied French literature), and later Germany. He was therefore able to meet Greene on many occasions in the UK and Europe, and Greene was best man at Murek's second marriage, which took place in Switzerland in December 1982. It is possible that there was a shadow side to the relationship between Greene and Murek connected with the world of espionage: certainly, Greene's 1955 trip to Warsaw was funded by MI6. Murek's letters from the 1950s frequently express his frustrations at the political system in his homeland: he writes enthusiastically of the changes brought about by the Polish October of 1956, and his later letters written from the West make clear his loathing of the Soviet sytem.