Jerzy Kosinski - Early Life, Teaching, and Marriage

Early Life, Teaching, and Marriage

Kosiński, who was Jewish, was born Józef Lewinkopf in Łódź, Poland. As a child during World War II, he lived in central Poland under a false identity, Jerzy Kosiński, which his father gave to him. A Roman Catholic priest issued him a forged baptismal certificate. The Kosiński family survived the Holocaust thanks to local villagers who offered assistance to Jewish Poles, often at great personal risk (the penalty in Nazi-occupied Poland being death). Kosiński's father received help not only from town leaders and churchmen, but also from individuals such as Marianna Pasiowa, a member of the underground network helping Jews evade capture. The family lived openly in Dąbrowa Rzeczycka near Stalowa Wola, and attended church in nearby Wola Rzeczycka, obtaining support from villagers in Kępa Rzeczycka. They were sheltered temporarily by a Catholic family in Rzeczyca Okrągła. The young Jerzy even served as an altar boy in a local church.

After World War II, Kosiński remained with his parents in Poland, moved to Jelenia Góra, and by the age of 22 had earned two graduate degrees in history and sociology at the University of Łódź. He worked as an associate professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Kosinski also studied in the Soviet Union, and served as a sharpshooter in the Polish Army.

To emigrate to the United States in 1957, he created a fake foundation which supposedly sponsored him. He later claimed that he forged the letters from eminent Polish communist authorities guaranteeing his loyal return, which were needed for anyone leaving the country at that time.

After taking odd jobs to get by, such as driving a truck, Kosiński graduated from Columbia University. In 1965, he became an American citizen. He received grants from the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and the Ford Foundation in 1968. in 1970, he received the American Academy of Arts and Letters award for literature. The grants allowed him to write a political non-fiction book that opened new doors of opportunity. He became a lecturer at Yale, Princeton, Davenport, and Wesleyan Universities.

In 1962, Kosiński married American steel heiress Mary Hayward Weir. They divorced in 1966. After Weir died in 1968 from brain cancer, Kosiński was left nothing in her will. He later fictionalized this marriage in his novel Blind Date, speaking of Weir under pseudonym Mary–Jane Kirkland. Kosiński went on to marry Katherina "Kiki" von Fraunhofer, a marketing consultant and descendant of Bavarian aristocracy.