Passing by : selected essays, 1962-1991byJerzy Kosinski

Passing by: Selected Essays, 1962-1991 (1992) is a collection of essays by Jerzy Kosinski. The book features pieces about polo and skiing, levitation, the streets of New York, present-day Poland, the Cannes film festival, celebrities, and more. The collection was published posthumously after his 1991 suicide.

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Synopsis
Jerzy Kosinski's suicide in 1991 shocked the literary world. A Polish emigre who had survived unspeakable horrors as a child during World War II, Kosinski was a flamboyant figure whose death only added to the aura of mystery that surrounded him. Passing By is Kosinski's legacy, a collection of writings, never before published in book form, that answers many questions about Kosinski and his work - a revealing and provocative self-portrait by an author whose life was shrouded in enigma. Kosinski prided himself on his ability to hide - physically - whenever he wanted. Certainly he managed to keep his own persona and even his life something of a mystery, but here he talks about himself, some of his obsessions, and his feelings about places from New York to Poland. The man who emerges has a passion for sport (polo and skiing), a quirky sense of fun ("Learning to Levitate"), strong opinions about various locales (the streets of New York, present-day Poland, the Cannes film festival), an idiosyncratic range of acquaintances (meetings with such diverse people as Pope John Paul II, Solzhenitsyn, Warren Beatty, Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jacques Monod), and an abiding love of secrets, conundrums, and fantasies. But first and foremost - as he demonstrates in "The Real Author of Jerzy Kosinski's Books," and in major essays on his novels The Painted Bird and Steps - Kosinski is a powerful literary artist, a man who will always be remembered for his electrifying works of fiction.

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Contents
Aleksandr and André Wat -- Time to spare -- Death in Cannes -- On books -- To touch minds -- The reality behind words -- Where an author can be himself -- Our "predigested, prepackaged pop culture".. a novelist's view -- To hold a pen -- A sense of place -- My twenty-minute performance -- On journalists : combining objective data with subjective attitudes -- On sculpture : sculptorids of Rhonda Roland Shearer -- Photography as art -- On film and literature -- How I learned to levitate in water -- Crans-Montana.. the open resort -- Horses -- A passion for polo -- New York : the literary autofocus -- Key to New York -- Time machine -- Short takes : Manhattan ; A celebration of literacy and learning ; Gotham Book Mart ; New York is a city of port and sport ; Beach wear -- Being here -- Charisma camouflages mortality -- Solzhenitsyn : the disenchanted pilgrim -- A message to the chamber from Jerzy Kosinski -- A brave man, this Beatty. Brave as John Reed -- Egypt, polo and the perplexed I -- A plea to Khomeini from an author whose work also has offended -- Gog and Magog : on watching TV -- TV as baby-sitter -- Against book censorship -- Dead souls on campus -- The banned book as psychological drug.. a parody? -- No religion is an island -- God &.. -- Jews in the Soviet Union -- Hosanna to what? -- Restoring a Polish-Jewish soul -- Speaking form my self -- Afterword : The painted bird tenth anniversary edition (1976) -- Notes of the author on The painted bird -- Art of the self : essays à propos Steps -- Disguises -- On death.