The Great Jerzy Kosinski Press War: A Bibliography

Prussian army—and not in fact the Czech police, all of which would make for a much lesser myth. Which am I, Klinkiewicz or Klinkowitz? Who is Jim, Bittner or Bitnar? Who is Kosinski? Does it matter? Yes, because it gives us all something to write about, to tell stories about. To tell stories is to generate secrets, and that is the central point of Kosinski's life and art. The Great Jerzy Kosinski Press War: A Bibliography / Jerome Klinkowitz & Daniel J. Cahill The following compilation is necessarily selective, limited almost directly to 1982 and including only the regional press coverage that we were lucky enough to receive from friends (many other papers which had news reports and editorial comments, such as the Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe, escaped our notice). We have each been following the fortunes of Jerzy Kosinski for over a decade, but only in the past year has our subject exploded from the more staid essay and review outlets into a full-fledged press war, ranging from William Satire's "Op-Ed" comments in the New York Times to the "News Media" section of Newsweek, with stops at People magazine and Vogue along the way. At issue is a much larger question than the authorship of Jerzy Kosinski's novels (even though we're convinced they're his own), for in this case a literary matter has been discussed in every section of the news media except the book pages, and has involved matters of cultural style, international politics, and journalistic ethics never before made part of serious literary criticism. The Kosinski affair is not without recent precedent, since even before the "Arts & Leisure" and "Magazine" sections of the New York Times and the Village Voice front-page reporters initiated it, the Washington Post had chosen to feature the late John Gardner's remarkable aesthetic recantation not in its highly respected (yet proportionately less read) "Book World" supplement but rather on the more sensationally apparent front page of its "Style" section (July 25, 1982). Literary criticism, it seems, has become an exciting business in America these days. Our thanks go to Jerzy Kosinski, Kiki von Fraunhofer, Phil Murphy, Gary Arms, Gonny Schokkenbroek, Tom Stats, and Elaine Klinkowitz for sending us these clippings which follow in chronological order. Unsigned. Personality note, People, December 28, 1981/January 4, 1982. Unpaged, with photo, noting similarities between Kosinski's latest protagonist (in Pinball) and his own role as an actor in Reds. Jerome Klinkowitz The Missouri Review · 272 Gelb, Barbara. "Being Jerzy Kosinski," The New York Times Magazine, February 21, 1982, cover photo plus pp. 42-46, 49, 52-54, 58. Well-documented biography of Kosinski, accompanied by photos from his personal archive and detailing his past and present life. Unsigned. "Correction," The New York Times Magazine, March 14, 1982, p. 126. Correct date of Kosinski's mother's death is 1973; Barbara Gelb's Magazine story of February 21 had mistakenly reported two different years. Kosinski, Jerzy. "A Brave Man, This Beatty. Brave As John Reed. . .," Vogue, April 1982, pp. 316, 318, 379. Part of a composite feature entitled The Passions of Warren Beatty, with contributions by Kosinski, Kurt Vonnegut, Max Lerner, and Joan Juliet Buck focusing on the film Reds. Kosinski writes at length on the filming in Spain and his own supporting role as Zinoviev. Kakutani, Michiko. "The New Writer Vs. Hollywood," The New York Times, April 25, 1982, "Arts & Leisure" section, pp. 1, 30. Reports that Kosinski is at work adapting Pinball for the screen. Herman, Jan. "Hanging Out" column entitled "Two Say They Penned Some Kosinski Work," Chicago Sun-Times, June 17, 1982, pp. 92, 97. Reports Voice story in their issue dated June 22. Stokes, Geoffrey, with Eliot Fremont-Smith, "jerzy Kosinski's Tainted Words," Village Voice, June 22, 1982, pp. 1, 41-43. A challenge to Kosinski's biography as reported by Barbara GeIb in The New York Times Magazine of February 21, claiming that Kosinski had CIA backing for his pseudonymous works on collective behavior in the Soviet Union. Cockburn, Alexander. "Pressclips" column entitled "Bashful," Village Voice, June 29, 1982, p. 11. Quotes from an unpublished section of Stokes and Fremont-Smith...