Działalność Rady Książki w Polsce (1945–1947)

Abstract

The Book Council was established in Poland in 1937. Its aim was to bring about the cooperation of institutions that professionally deal with books: the authors, printers, editors, publishers, booksellers, librarians and educationists. After World War II the Book Council was reactivated by the ordinance of the Minister of Education dated September 20, 1945. The responsibilities of the Council were restricted to three tasks: general politics of publishing, the amendment of the copyright as well as the readership and book propaganda. Three Committees were appointed: the Committee for Publishing Plan and Book Production, the Copyright Committee and the Committee for Organizing the Book Week. The aim of this article is to present the activities of the abovementioned Book Council Committees and the evaluation of the legitimacy of the Council’s existence from the point of view of their members (the vice-director Jan Muszkowski and secretary Jan Rosner). The primary sources of information were the documents from the years 1945–1947 kept in the manuscript collection of the Library of the University of Łódź (the legacy from Professor Jan Muszkowski, documents referring to the Book Council) and the documents from the Book Science Documentation Institute of the National Library (Book Council Files).