Wiktor Jan, *Pigeons by the Church* [1929]

Title: Pigeons by the Church.

Author: Jan Wiktor (1890–1967) [novelist, essayist, and journalist; a champion of the Pieniny Mountains; recipient of the Golden Laurel from the Polish Academy of Literature].

Publisher: Kraków, published by the “Czas” Printing House.

Year of publication: 1929.

Format: 29 cm.

Number of pages: 45, [2] pp.

Binding: Original paper publisher’s cover.

“Pigeons by the Church” is a bibliophile edition published in 1929 by the “Czas” Printing House in Kraków for the Fourth Congress of Polish Bibliophiles in Poznań. The convention took place during the year of the General National Exhibition, which marked the first decade of the reborn Republic of Poland. The content consists of a collection of literary sketches by Jan Wiktor, but the typographic design is equally important in this edition. The book is large-format with wide margins. Its initials were modeled after the 16th-century initials of the Poznań printer Jan Wolrab—a clear nod to the printing tradition of the city hosting the convention. The print run consisted of 450 numbered pieces. According to the colophon, numbers 1–100 were allocated to the Bibliophiles’ Convention, numbers 101–200 for the Book Lovers’ Society in Kraków, 201–230 for the author, and 231–450 for sale in bookstores. The piece presented here bears the number 376.

Jan Wiktor was born on November 1, 1890, in Radomyśl on the San River, the son of Augustyn, a bricklayer, and Marianna (née Kowalik). In 1910, he passed his high school graduation exam at the Imperial-Royal Gymnasium in Dębica and began medical studies at the University of Lviv, which he interrupted due to a lung disease. During World War I, he served as a medic in the Austrian army. In the interwar period, he edited the *Gazeta Podhalańska* and wrote for publications such as the *Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny*. He was also active in the peasant and cooperative movements. He formed a lifelong connection with the Pieniny Mountains and Szczawnica—he survived the occupation there, and the Homole Gorge was named after him. In 1937, he received the Golden Laurel from the Polish Academy of Literature. His most important books include *Willows on the Seine* (1933), *Plowing on Fallow Land* (1935), *The Pope and the Rebel* (1953), and *The Pieniny Mountains and the Sądecka Region* (1956). After the war, he was a member of the National Council, and from 1952 to 1956, he served as a deputy in the Sejm of the People’s Republic of Poland during its first term. He was awarded, among others, the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Order of the Labor Banner; he also received a state award. He died on February 17, 1967, in Kraków and was laid to rest at Rakowicki Cemetery.

The provenance of this piece remains unknown—the block contains no ownership inscriptions or stamps. Number 376 falls within the range of 231–450, meaning it is part of the print run intended for bookstores.

A numbered bibliophile print from the 1929 Poznań Congress, an uncut piece—for collectors of bibliophile and congress prints from the Second Polish Republic, as well as researchers of the history of Kraków’s publishing houses.

The piece is entirely uncut, in its original condition as it left the printing press. The block is intact; the paper is clean, free of stains and yellowing. The paper cover is loose from the block, with slight creases along the edges.

Catalog ID: 15569-29-A-X