Proud To Be A Mammal

'To talk about one's childhood usually is to tell about one's family, yet in this respect I must confess that for me adults resided in a hazy world, not my own. I was a lone child in a magic kingdom that I explored from early morning till dusk.'

Proud to be a Mammal (1942-97) is Czeslaw Milosz's moving and diverse collection of essays. Among them, he covers his passion for poetry, his love of the Polish language that was so nearly wiped out by the violence of the twentieth century, and his happy childhood. Milosz also includes a letter to his friend in which he voices his concern about the growing indifference to murder and the true value of freedom of thought, as well as a verbal map of Wilno, with each street revealing both a rich local history and intricate, poignant personal memories.