Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1939-1945 (Creation)
Level of description
Manuscript Collection
Extent and medium
3 boxes
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Danuta Irena Czech was born in Torun, Poland, into the family of a noncommissioned officer. With the outbreak of war, she was evacuated with the rest of her family to Eastern Poland, spending a few months under Soviet occupation in a small town near the Toumanian border. Later the family was deported, first to the Komi republic, in the north of European Russia, and then to Uzbekistan, ending up in a Polish refugee camp in India. After the war, the family emigrated to England. As a brilliant student, Danuta had no difficulty continuing her education at the University of London, from where she received an honours B.A. in Russian and English literature in 1952. She had married in 1951, but the marriage was not a success, and after spending two years as a Russian specialist with the National Central Library in London, she emigrated to Canada, and continued her studies at the University of Toronto. Here she simultaneously worked on an M.A., and on a B.A. in Polish literature from the University of London. After receiving her M.A. in 1958, she worked briefly with the Catholic Children's Aid Society, until she was granted a two year Ford Foundation fellowship to study for a Ph.D in Polish literature at the School of Slavonic Studies (University of London). She chose as her topic the early work of Stefan Zeromski, successfully defending her thesis in 1965.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The collection begins with the diaries written during the war years and ends with correspondence relating to a conference she was to attend during the academic year after her death. All extant poetry and prose is here, in various forms. Some matters pertaining to the Slavic Dept. at the University of Toronto, as well as obituaries, memorial cards, etc. have been included.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-request.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
- Polish