Józef Mackiewicz and Barbara Toporska – "Great Absentees" in the Light of the Vilnius Press at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyze the knowledge and awareness about two writers – Józef Mackiewicz and his wife Barbara Toporska – that potential readers of the daily press published in Vilnius at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries might have possessed. The study mainly uses articles from the Polish-language press, such as the daily newspaper “Kurier Wileński” (1994, 2008, 2015, 2018), the socio-cultural magazine “Znad Wilii” (1989–1999), “Czas” (both printed biweekly), a supplement to “Nasza Gazeta” (2000), “Magazyn Wileński” (2006, 2012, 2020), which was published monthly, and “Rota”, a supplement to “Tygodnik Wileński” (2014). The details concerning Lithuanian authors were written at a later time and focus only on the reception of J. Mackiewicz’s work, completely ignoring the achievements of his wife. Publications about the writer’s work appeared in the following newspapers: “Mokslo Lietuva” (2002), “Naujasis Židinys. Aidai” (2007), “Kultūros barai” (2016), and “Šiaurės Atenai” (2019). Since 2018, an important site commemorating J. Mackiewicz and B. Toporska has been their house in Czarny Bór (lit. Juodšiliai), where the Józef Mackiewicz Creative Work Center is located.