It may be as a certain surprise, but Edmund Niziurski’s first book was created with the intention for … an adult reader. In retrospect, „Gorące dni” [„Hot Days”] is considered an exceptional book in the writer’s oeuvre. In accordance with the realities in which it was written, it pays homage to the socialist realism prevailing at the time. The action of the novel takes place in the countryside during the harvest, just after the war. In the atmosphere of reconstruction fever, we get to know the world of uncertainty, in which no one knows what the next day will bring. The world of the characters is typical socialist realist threads: speculators, sabotage, the party, the cooperative in which the new order replaces the old one – superstition, backwardness and old traditions. However, despite this different form, in „Gorące dni” one can find elements characteristic of subsequent novels.
Edmund Niziurski was the winner of many awards and distinctions. Certainly, an important distinction was the Order of the Smile, which was awarded to him in 1975 at the request of young readers. His daughter Anna, recalling these moments, emphasizes that it is one of the most important distinctions because it was awarded by young people and children who are honest and uncompromising in their judgments.
In „Pięć melonów na rękę” [„Five Million Net”] Edmund Niziurski decided to describe „the psychological adaptation of youth… to the changing economic situation and the rules of the free market”. The main theme of the novel is the adventures of two young „traders.” In the 1990s, a new phenomenon appeared – young people, showing entrepreneurship, either started businesses themselves or helped their parents in them.
„At every author’s meeting I was pestered with questions about why I didn’t write about girls, or at least why I didn’t put them on equal terms with boys in my books. I evaded them as best I could, jokingly answering that writing about girls was difficult for me because I had always been a boy. They weren’t convinced, they rightly said that there was such a thing as empathy, that is the ability to tune into someone else’s life (…). So I promised them that I would improve this situation. And indeed, I did improve, as evidenced by my books. First, I wrote an adventure story called Wyspa Strachowica [Strachowica Island], in which only girls appeared. Then I tried to please my female readers by introducing brave girls wherever I could, just to mention Awantura w Niekłaju, Awantury kosmiczne, Adelo rozumie mnie! [Trouble in Niekłań, Space Brawls, Adela, understand me!] and many short stories in which girl characters play a significant role.” (Magazyn Słowa Ludu 1999 [People’s Word Magazine 1999)].
Edmund Niziurski was a trainee in Kielce right after the end of the war. He encountered various criminal cases in court. These experiences were reflected in such novels as „Salon wytrzeźwień”, „Eminencje i balonbabancje” or „Przystań Eskulapa.”
Edmund Niziurski’s books have reached a volume of several million copies. They have been still being reissued and published by many publishing houses.
„When my husband got the offer to write a novel for young people, he said, „We’re going to the Kielce Region and looking for some land to write this book.” We went to Chęciny, where the famous castle is. And when I looked into the distance, I saw some rocks in the distance, but it got late and we went back home. A few days later my husband went there to see those rocks because they were bothering him. There he came across an old mine, or rather an old wild shaft. He tried to get in, but he couldn’t, but later he got a pass and some engineers took him there. He came back in worn-out, muddy trousers and said, „I’ve got the material.”
Barbara Niziurska (wife) in: K. Varga, Ksiega dla starych urwisów [The Book of Old Rascals], p. 88
„Young people are incredibly honest. No one will force them to read. If they like a book, they would like to learn about new adventures of the same characters. But I don’t like that, I prefer to explore new environments. Although I have already written a trilogy. Meeting is like a mirror. I can see which novels people like. I am also happy that adult readers come to me and say that they had been heavily influenced by my books.
E. Niziurski, From an interview in the „Ikar” cultural and artistic monthly, no. 11, 1999.
„The writing of Edmund Niziurski, an extremely popular creator who is constantly present in the minds of young readers, constitute a permanent and almost classic part of contemporary fiction for children and young people. In recent times, this very fiction, formerly contemptuously called „Cinderella”, thanks to changes in content and form, has taken its rightful place in the latest literary culture. Becoming a universally appreciated element of art, it has begun to fulfill the functions of a teacher of life and to realize the cognitive, educational and entertainment goals it sets.
S. Frycie, „The Writing of Edmund Niziurski”, „Polish Studies. Monthly Journal of Education and Upbringing”, no. 2, 1987.
After the outbreak of war, the family evacuated from Poland on 3rd October 1939, heading to Hungary. There, Edmund studied at the famous school for Polish children in Balatonboglár. The school in Balatonboglár was established in December 1939. Initially, 150 students learnt there. After the fall of France, in 1940, the idea of creating a single center for educating Polish youth in Hungary was born. Balatonboglár was chosen, and from that moment on, the junior secondary school and senior secondary school operated under the name of the Polish Youth Camp. The reason was Father Béla Varga, the local parish priest and a great friend of Poles. The school had a scouting group, a dance group, a theater group, a choir, and an orchestra. Edmund Niziurski studied at Lake Balaton for only a year – in the autumn of 1940, the Niziurski family decided to return to Kielce.
Edmund and Zofia Barbara Kowalska (born in 1926) met in a forest near Kielce. This is how B. Niziurska recalled this moment years later, „This is the most important moment in my life. I loved the forest and my husband loved the forest too. (…) One day I went for a walk in the forest, even though they said that there were still people with guns in the forest, so going there could be dangerous. However, I always considered the forest to be very safe. One Sunday I decided to go to the forest, which I often did. I was walking along a path and a young man was walking opposite. We bumped into each other on this forest path and the first question my future husband asked me was: „What books do you like, what do you read?”
„My father lived in Kielce until the end of his life – on the top of his dream mountain. That’s how I would describe it. He loved Kielce, he loved the mountains and he didn’t like Warsaw. He always felt a bit like an exile in the capital.”
Son Marcin in: K. Varga, Księga dla starych urwisów [The Book of Old Rascals], Warsaw 2019, p. 34.