Look into the Abyss

Czeslaw Milosz belongs to the small group of contemporary writers who have “looked into the abyss” and survived the experience, scarred but without having lost their integrity as writers and human beings. His book The Captive Mind established him some 15 years ago as an articulate and sensitive analyst of this searing experience.

Milosz was born in Poland, country at the crossroads of East and West European culture and buffer between two big and—during the critical years ...