The pianist : the extraordinary true story of one man's survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945

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Author:

Szpilman, Władysław.

Hosenfeld, Wilm.

Publication Information:

New York : Picador USA, 1999.

Abstract:

A Jewish pianist's real-life account of survival in World War II Warsaw. Separated in a melee, he fights to rejoin his family as they board the death train, but police block him. "Papa!" he cries. The father waves, "as if I were setting out into life and he was already greeting me from beyond the grave."

Geographic Term:

Warsaw (Poland) -- Biography.

Warschau

ISBN:

9780312263768

Physical Description:

222 p., [4] p. of plates : ports. ; 20 cm.

Subject Term:

Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw -- Biography.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Poland -- Warsaw -- Personal narratives.

Jewish musicians -- Poland -- Warsaw -- Biography.

Added Author:

Personal Subject:

Szpilman, W·ladys·law

Uniform Title:

Śmierć miasta. English

Personal Author:

Szpilman, Władysław.

Title:

The pianist : the extraordinary true story of one man's survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945

Śmierć miasta. English

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Library	Shelf Number	Material Type	Status
Searching... Hattiesburg Library	940.5318 SZPILMAN	Book	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The memoir that inspired Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning film, which won the Cannes Film Festival's most prestigious prize--the Palme d'Or.

Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times

On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside--so loudly that he couldn't hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air.

Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling.

Author Notes

WLADYSLAW SZPILMAN was born in 1911. He studied the piano at the Warsaw Conservatory and at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. From 1945 to 1963, he was Director of Music at Polish Radio, and he also pursued a career as a concert pianist and composer for many years. The film adaptation of his memoir The Pianist won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival as well as three Academy Awards. He lived in Warsaw until his death in 2000.