100 benches in Krakow honor Polish writers.. see (
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This one honors Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska.
Wikipedia (
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"Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, née Kossak (24 November 1891 – 9 July 1945), was a Polish poet known as the Polish Sappho and "queen of lyrical poetry" of Poland's interwar period. Fluent in French, English, and German, she married three times and lived the life of a world traveller.
Life
Born in Kraków to a family of artists, Maria Kossak grew up around painters, writers, and intellectuals. Her grandfather, Juliusz Kossak, and father, Wojciech Kossak, were both professional painters famous for their historical paintings. Her younger sister, Magdalena Samozwaniec, was also a popular writer.
Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska by Witkacy (pastel)
In her youth, Kossak painted as often as she wrote poetry. It was only during her marriage to Jan Pawlikowski — after the invalidated first marriage to Wladyslaw Bzowski — that her literary interests prevailed, inspired by the couple's discussions about her poetic output and the world of literature in general. Their passionate relationship based on shared interests and mutual love was the endless source of her poetic inspiration. However, the second marriage didn't last either.
Following her divorce, Maria Pawlikowska became active in the community of poets from the Warsaw-based Skamander group: Julian Tuwim, Jan Lechon, Kazimierz Wierzynski, and renowned writers such as Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, Irena Krzywicka, Kazimiera Illakowiczówna and Tadeusz Boy-Zelenski. During the inter-war period Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska published twelve volumes of poetry and established herself as one of the most innovative poets of the era.
She began her career as a playwright in 1924, with her first farce, Archibald the Chauffeur, produced in Warsaw. By 1939 she had written fifteen plays whose treatment of taboo topics such as abortion, extramarital affairs, and incest provoked scandals. She was compared by critics to Molière, Marivaux, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Witkacy. Her plays depicted her unconventional approach to motherhood, which she understood as a painful obligation that ends mutual passion. She spoke in support of a woman's right to choose according to her needs and feelings.
Grave of Maria Jasnorzewska in Southern Cemetery, Manchester
In 1939, at the onset of World War II, she followed her third husband, Stefan Jasnorzewski, to England. She was diagnosed with cancer in 1944, became semi-paralyzed, and on 9 July 1945 died in Manchester, cared for by her husband. She lies buried with her husband in Southern Cemetery, Manchester."