Yearbook of Bibliology and Press Studies

Summary

The article elaborates the phenomenon of Sławomir Rawicz the author of an only book entitled The long Walk. The book from the 13th of April 1956, written in English and issued by the Constable Publishers in London was a bestseller, amply highlighted in the British, American and other media. The polish emigration press, apart from the editorial of the London "Polish Daily and Soldier's Daily", hardly took notice of the author's success. There were reviews in the "White Eagle" and the Paris "Culture". By the year 2007 these memories had lived to see 43 publications in 25 languages all over the world. It must be acknowledged that the polish edition of The long Walk was issued in London by the Unicom Publishers in 1993. It is the narration of the, improbably lasting for several months, escape of seven men from the soviet concentration camp in the proximity of the Arctic circle who, through the Tibet, the Gobi desert and the Himalay, got to India in March 1942. The author after the Second World War settled in Great Britain. In the year 2009 there was a scandal when the deceased Rawicz (sińce the year 2004) was charged with the usurpation of the story by the Polish Armed Forces veteran Witold Gliński. It is worth pondering over why this issue was brought to light only after the death of Sławomir Rawicz but then, the author of The long Walk "could no longer defend himself

This unusual escape, transcending the limits of imagination, was not until 2010 that it was film-adapted by the famous Australian Peter Weir, the creator of such productions as Pienie under the Hanging Rock "and the De ad Poets Society. The film had its premiere in Poland on the 8th of April 2011.